Big Picture: Zero Routine Flaring (ZRF) pledges are becoming more prevalent, but do most energy companies even know how much and when they are flaring? Flaring is the process of burning off excess natural gas during oil and gas production. While it is sometimes necessary for safety reasons, flaring is also prevalent when there is no transport or market for natural gas available. Flaring releases significant amounts of greenhouse gasses into the atmosphere and results in lost product that could make a difference in a supply constrained market.

Going Deeper: Here are three ways to accurately report and reduce emissions from flaring:

Tier 1️⃣ Approach: Uses default emission factors based on the type of fuel being burned and the amount of time it is burned for.

• Relatively simple and easy to implement
• Downside: May not account for variations in operating conditions or differences in flare design

Tier 2️⃣ Approach: Involves detailed measurements of flares and their associated equipment.

• Takes into account factors such as flare size, composition of gas being burned, and combustion efficiency.
• Downside: It can be more complex and resource-intensive than Tier 1.

Tier 3️⃣ Approach: Even more detailed measurements and modeling techniques to estimate greenhouse gas emissions from flaring.

• Includes measuring temperature profiles within the flare stack and using computational fluid dynamics simulations to model combustion processes.
• Downside: While this approach can provide highly accurate estimates, it requires a significant amount of expertise and resources.

What’s Next: There are also emerging technologies such as infrared cameras or drones equipped with sensors that can provide real-time measurements of greenhouse gas emissions from flaring. NGO and the media will continue to survey oil and gas fields across the US seeking large flaring events. The ever-increasing importance of companies being able to understand when and how much they flared in a timely manner provides them with evidence they are achieving their ZRF pledge.

‍In Conclusion: Choose the right methodology based on factors such as your accuracy requirements, available resources, and operating conditions.