i'm on a journey into a burning issue
for the oil business here in the u.s and
around the world
flaring is the controlled burning of
unwanted natural gas during crude oil
production which results in more than
400 million tons of co2 being released
into the atmosphere each year
that's more than the annual greenhouse
gas emissions of the entire uk economy
flaring happens because it's not in the
economic interest of the company to
invest in taking care of that natural
gas and that needs to change if they
don't want to spend the money to connect
to a pipeline for that natural gas
they'll just burn that natural gas that
comes up
on the spot and that's a waste of a
resource and it's a source of pollution
globally seven countries account for
around 65 percent of the world's gas
flaring russia contributes the highest
amounts with the usa in fourth position
from 2019 to 2020 however there was a 5
decline in flaring worldwide with us
seeing the biggest decrease of 32
according to the world bank this was due
to low oil production during the
pandemic but also due to infrastructure
improvements to capture and use the gas
instead of flaring it
hello justin hi clay
i've come to houston the headquarters of
apache corporation flaring is something
that we have seen in the industry is
truly being a black eye it's something
it's very evident people see it they see
a waste of resources what we're trying
to do is tackle this problem
the oil and gas company has set a target
to eliminate routine gas flaring by the
end of 2021
we've invested in our own infrastructure
to take natural gas away from our
wellheads and to take those to
third-party midstream providers are you
putting yourself at a disadvantage to
operators who aren't as aware of these
issues or aren't putting the investment
into stopping flaring
no i think that's that's a short-term
metric yes it does cost more what we're
doing is going to make us sustainable
into the future
for some independent watchdogs industry
commitments to reduce flaring do not go
far enough
there needs to be actual direct
measurements made to prove that those
commitments are being made it's one
thing to say that you're going to do a
certain thing it's another thing to
prove that you're actually doing it
environmental defense fund has been
monitoring gas flowing in the permian
basin in west texas
an area that accounts for about half of
total u.s onshore oil outputs
using infrared cameras the ngo can
measure levels of methane the invisible
gas that is 80 times more potent than
co2
what we're finding is is that methane is
escaping directly into the atmosphere
these flares are not burning the actual
natural gas and methane right now is
contributing about 25 percent of the
warming so one of the things that we can
do in the immediate sense is to reduce
methane emissions from man-made sources
as quickly as possible
there has been some progress with
companies making commitments around
reducing their methane emissions and
reducing their flaring as well
but at the regulatory level in the state
of texas there has not been much
progress when it comes to regulations in
the u.s there's a disparity of rules
between federal
and private land if it's federal land
where the work is being done then the
rules will be federal rules texas is 95
private land
so the rules in texas are governed by
what private land owners
prefer
in 2019 texas accounted for almost half
of the total gas flared in the u.s
despite these challenges the professor
is encouraged by the progress that is
being made the oil and gas industry has
always invested a lot in
engineering innovation there's a lot of
interest in the industry now in reducing
greenhouse gas emissions both in the
upstream which is where we produce the
oil and gas bring it to the surface
and all the way to
the sale point for consumers
we want to be cleaner as a company we
want to be part of the solution we
recognize that society is demanding
cleaner energy sources and resources led
by the world bank there are global
efforts to eliminate gas flaring by 2030
but ultimately it may be economic
considerations that have the greatest
influence on the issue
one potentially positive development is
that in the united states this summer's
natural gas price is the highest it's
been since 2014
and in the short term at least that
could prove to be the strongest
incentive of all for companies to reduce
flaring
[Music]