Sonatrach Joins Zero Flaring Initiative
Algerian state producer Sonatrach has joined the ‘Zero Routine Flaring by 2030’ initiative at the request of the World Bank, state news agency APS reported August 20. The ZRF-2030 initiative was jointly launched by the bank and UN Secretary General in 2015.
The bank’s updated Global Gas Flaring Reduction (GGFR) team lists 35 oil and gas companies, 27 governments including California and 15 institutions that have endorsed its ZRF-2030 initiative to date. Sonatrach's smaller neighbour Tunisian state Etap and the governments of Egypt and Morocco have also joined.
GGFR told NGW it announced May 31 Sonatrach's "recent endorsement" of ZRF-2030, noting also that the company had "been working to identify and implement solutions to reduce gas flaring since 1976, and the Algerian government passed significant flaring regulations in 2005," adding that its endorsement "shows Sonatrach’s intent to continuously work on improving its flaring situation."
GGFR last month said that a total of 140.6bn m3 was flared across the world in 2017, which was 7.1bn m3 less than in 2016. Algeria flared 8.8bn m3, down 0.3bn m3 on its 2016 flaring. That meant it ranked as the fifth largest flaring nation, behind Russia, Iraq, Iran and the US. However Algeria’s flaring intensity – the amount of gas flared per barrel of oil produced – was much higher than all the other four.