Statoil Commits to End Routine Gas Flaring by 2030

Statoil committed to end the practice of routine gas flaring at oil production sites by 2030, during a meeting in Washington on Friday with other oil companies and nations. 

“Meeting the target of zero routine flaring by 2030 is a highly important contribution our industry can make towards mitigating climate change,” CEO Eldar Sætre said during his speech at the World Bank.

Statoil is not resorting to such a practice in Norway, as the Scandinavian country banned routine flaring in 1971.  

According to Sætre, 140 billion cubic metres of associated natural gas is flared annually worldwide.

‘Together with Statoil and Norway, eight other oil companies and eight other countries have endorsed the initiative recognising that routine gas flaring is unsustainable from a resource management and environmental perspective’ reads a note released by the Stavanger-based company. 

Eni, Total, Royal Dutch Shell committed to ending the practice by 2030 too. 

Also on Friday, the Norwegian Petroleum Directorate (NPD) released preliminary figures for March 2015, showing that gas production in Norway was on February levels. As in the previous months, production was higher than forecasted, and above production in March 2014.

‘The total petroleum production for the first three months in 2015 is about 58.8 million Sm3 oil equivalents (MSm3 o.e.), broken down as follows: about 22.0 MSm3 o.e. of oil, about 5.6 MSm3 o.e. of NGL and condensate and about 31.2 MSm3 o.e. of gas for sale. The total volume is 1.4 MSm3 o.e. higher than for the same period in 2014’ reads NPD’s website.  

Finally, BG Norge completed drilling of an exploration well near the Knarr Field in the North Sea, saying that the well is dry.