Many countries are juggling a tough energy balancing act: keeping up with growing demand while minimizing the environmental impacts from producing energy and capturing the full economic value of their natural resources. It’s especially difficult for developing countries, where expertise, resources, and budgets are often constrained.
While this balancing act will surely continue for quite some time, it’s important we recognize there are some relatively easy ways to better manage it.
Every year oil and gas operations around the world release large quantities of natural gas (mostly methane) and carbon dioxide into the atmosphere through leaks in infrastructure and the wasteful practices of gas flaring and venting. The The World Bank’s Global Gas Flaring Tracker shows that flaring in 2024 hit its highest level since 2007—151 billion cubic meters, a volume comparable to total gas consumption across the entire African continent. The International Energy Agency (IEA) estimates methane leaks from oil and gas were over 80 million tonnes in 2025. Much of the flaring, venting and methane leaks happen out of sight, far from where most people live. So, it can be easy to overlook. Yet the consequences of this industry practice are profound.
The Economic Cost of Wasted Gas
Flaring, venting and ignoring infrastructure leaks should not have been acceptable decades ago and certainly not today. There are numerous technical, policy, regulatory, and economic solutions. What is missing is political will, leadership, and prioritization. During a time of acute energy insecurity, these large volumes of wasted natural gas should instead be used for productive purposes, boosting energy security and government revenues, lowering emissions and in some cases providing access to energy. That these industry practices persist in developing countries, that can least afford the waste and in which some 500 million people still lack access to basic energy, is extremely unfortunate.
Energy security is a precondition for a functioning labor market. Without it, the cost of doing business rises, firm productivity falls, new investment is deterred, and both the quantity and quality of jobs suffer. Across Africa alone, electricity outages are associated with a 13.5 percentage point reduction in employment.
The economic damage from these industry practices isn’t just to jobs; it is also large scale lost revenue. Globally, the gas flared in 2024 alone was worth an estimated $19–$63 billion, based on US Henry Hub and EU import prices. Countries also forgo significant — if harder to quantify — revenue from gas that is vented or leaked.
Ending routine gas flaring and venting, and reducing methane emissions is an economic necessity everywhere, but particularly in the developing world.
Results on the Ground
The World Bank’s GFMR is working with governments and industry leadership to ensure flaring, venting and methane reduction projects are prioritized. Since GFMR was announced during COP28 UAE in Dubai, we have moved from inception to impact, supporting 17 countries that together account for more than a quarter of global methane emissions from oil and gas operations and nearly two‑fifths of global gas flaring.
In Uzbekistan we have helped a state-owned operator detect and repair methane leaks from aging gas infrastructure and assisted the government in creating a reinvestment mechanism that ensures a long-term and programmatic approach while further reducing gas losses. Simple low-cost interventions have already abated 16,000 tonnes of methane, and the reductions are expected to rise to ~47,500 tonnes per year as we scale up our activities. The gas that will now remain within the infrastructure will annually deliver approximately US$18 million in savings, boosting revenues for the government.
In Indonesia, our collaboration with Pertaminashows how shared expertise can drive meaningful progress; it highlights leak detection and repair (LDAR) campaigns as low-hanging fruit that offer fast implementation and immediate emission reductions. Following Pertamina’s commitment to the World Bank’s Zero Routine Flaring by 2030 (ZRF) Initiative in 2024, we jointly developed a roadmap for flaring and methane reduction. By last December, we were already in the field, running an LDAR campaign at Badak LNG, Indonesia's largest LNG facility and a critical hub for regional gas exports. The campaign detected over 250 fugitive leaks, with roughly half being repaired on-site before we left. That kind of immediate turnaround, at a facility of this scale, proved that combining international expertise with local operational knowledge can rapidly mitigate emissions at scale.
These early results demonstrate that responsible and effective resource management, environmental stewardship, and economic benefits are all intertwined when it comes to flaring, venting and methane reduction. Capturing gas that would otherwise be wasted can expand access to affordable, secure, reliable power, unlocking multiplier effects across local economies and generating jobs well beyond the energy sector.
For more detailed information on our initial projects and initiatives, read GFMR’s first Annual Progress Report.
About the World Bank’s GFMR
Supported by Norway, the United Arab Emirates, the United States, bp, Eni, Equinor, Oxy, Shell, and TotalEnergies, the partnership’s mission is to help countries with the least capacity and resources to end routine flaring and venting, and reduce methane emissions. The Partnership provides governments and state-owned entities with catalytic grant funding, technical assistance, policy and regulatory reform advisory services, institutional strengthening, and finance mobilization to jump-start and accelerate the deployment of solutions.