20 November 2008: The World Bank-led Global Gas Flaring
Reduction partnership (GGFR) will organize a forum to look for ways of
unlocking the value of wasted gas associated with oil production.

The Global
Forum on Flaring Reduction and Natural Gas Utilization, to be held in
Amsterdam, the Netherlands, from 4-5 December 2008, will review the regulatory
and commercial barriers that lead to natural gas flaring and venting, and will
highlight best practices and case studies of operations that have been able to
overcome barriers to gas utilization. It will also provide, for the first time,
an opportunity to look at emerging technologies for the utilization of flared
gas. The GGFR partnership estimates that globally at least 150 billion cubic
meters (bcm) of gas are flared or burned every year, causing about 400 million
tons of carbon dioxide in annual emissions.
The US Environmental Protection
Agency estimates that over 100 bcm of methane is vented or lost through
fugitive methane emissions in the oil and gas sector each year. As methane is
21 times as potent a greenhouse gas as carbon dioxide, this adds the equivalent
of over one billion tons of carbon dioxide annually. Altogether, this is more
than twice the potential yearly emission reduction from projects currently
submitted under the Kyoto mechanisms.
With the support of the US Environmental
Protection Agency’s Natural Gas STAR Program, Methane to Markets Partnership,
and the International Association of Oil & Gas Producers (OGP), as well as
major oil producing countries and companies, the Organization of the Petroleum
Exporting Countries Secretariat and the EU, the event will provide the venue
for a dialogue among stakeholders for the sharing of best practices, and
potential business opportunities. [World
Bank Press Release]