Global declines of offshore gas flaring inadequate to meet the 2030 goal

Abstract

Monitoring of gas flaring (GF)—the burning of natural gas associated with oil extraction—over most oil- and gas-producing areas is challenging due to high costs or difficult field investigations. As GF contributes to both global warming and air pollution, an up-to-date picture (locations, emissions and trends) of global offshore GF can help countries’ energy decarbonization efforts substantially. Although high-resolution satellite sensors regularly capture high-temperature signals from GF, retrieving spatially explicit information and estimating GF volumes from petabyte images remain challenging. Here we developed a monitoring framework and compiled a 20 m resolution inventory of offshore GF sites by analysing ~8.53 million Sentinel-2 images. A robust model (R2 > 0.99) was established to estimate offshore GF volumes from Sentinel-2 metrics. Our findings reveal that Sentinel-2 can pinpoint global offshore GFs to support scientifically sound decision-making; a vital few (~20%) sites are responsible for >80% of offshore GF volumes, calling for more targeted regulations; and the offshore GF volumes have declined by 26.4% from 2016 to 2021. We conclude that the Zero Routine Flaring Initiative by the Global Gas Flaring Reduction Partnership committing governments and oil companies to end routine flaring by no later than 2030 could be 5 years behind schedule. Monitoring of gas flaring (GF) can be expensive and practically difficult, but better information about global offshore GF is needed to inform decarbonization policies. This study presents a monitoring framework, a detailed inventory of offshore GF sites and estimates of GF volumes globally.