World Bank Report - Gas Flaring Up For 3rd Straight Year; More Flared Last Year Than All African Nations Used For Power
The oil industry’s practice of flaring gas from production facilities, which spews toxic emissions into nearby communities and contributes to climate change, has gotten worse, according to a new World Bank report.
Looming over oil fields like giant torches, flares burn off the gas that is pulled to the surface along with oil. Despite longstanding, industry-backed efforts to reduce flaring, the World Bank found that the volume of gas flared worldwide went up last year for the third year in a row. The amount burned, 167 billion cubic meters, is about as much as all the natural gas consumed in Africa — and was 16% higher than in 2012.
“We are moving in the wrong direction, and the scale of natural resource waste and economic loss is staggering,” the World Bank stated in its report. Oil companies could reduce flaring by capturing the gas and processing it for sale or reinjecting it underground. But companies and governments have failed to prioritize such solutions, resulting in a lack of investment and regulation, the World Bank said.
Nine countries — Russia, Iran, Iraq, Venezuela, Mexico, Libya, Algeria, Nigeria and the United States — accounted for most of the flaring around the globe last year. Flaring pollutes the air with soot, sulfur dioxide, nitrogen oxides and other harmful substances. Research has linked flaring to negative health effects such as preterm births and hospitalizations for respiratory problems. A study published this year found a connection between flaring and respiratory diseases and fever among children under the age of 5 in Nigeria, which ranks eighth among top-flaring countries.
EDIT
https://www.theexamination.org/articles/gas-flaring-world-bank-2025