The World Bank's Global Gas Flaring Tracker is the only global and independent indicator of routine gas flaring. The estimates allow us to monitor global flaring levels and track progress toward our goal of Zero Routine Flaring by 2030. You can view each of GGFR's interactive visualizations below:
Satellite data estimates show that the top 10 largest flaring countries in 2021 were Russia, Iraq, Iran, the United States, Venezuela, Algeria, Nigeria, Mexico, Libya, and China. These countries accounted for 75 percent of all gas flared and 50 percent of global oil production. The top seven gas flaring countries (Russia, Iraq, Iran, the United States, Algeria, Venezuela and Nigeria) continue to be the top flaring countries for the 10 year in a row.
In 2021, GGFR also launched a new metric, the Imported Flare Gas (IFG) Index. This index shows how countries importing crude oil are exposed to gas flaring. Preliminary results from the IFG Index show that many large crude oil-importing developed countries are exposed to gas flaring, since they import crude oil from countries that flare large volumes of associated gas.
GGFR, in partnership with the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and the Colorado School of Mines, has developed global gas flaring estimates based upon observations from satellites launched in 2012 and 2017. These satellites' advanced sensors detect the heat emitted by gas flares as infrared emissions at global upstream oil and gas facilities. The Colorado School of Mines and GGFR quantify these infrared emissions and calibrate them using country-level data collected by a third-party data supplier, Cedigaz, to produce robust estimates of global gas flaring volumes.
Annex I countries are defined by The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) and includes the industrialized countries that were members of the OECD (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development) in 1992, plus countries with economies in transition (the EIT Parties), including the Russian Federation, the Baltic States, and several Central and Eastern European States. UNFCCC identified the common but differentiated responsibilities and respective capabilities of different parties under Kyoto Protocol where Annex I countries committed to absolute emission reduction or limitation targets, whereas all other (non-Annex I) countries had no such obligations.
A note on methodology: The IFG Index aims to quantify the concept that if, a country is importing crude from producing countries then it is also importing the flaring intensity of these producing countries in proportion to the amount of crude oil imported. The methodology to calculate IFG index may be described by following formula(s).
Disclaimer: GGFR uses data from satellites operated by the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) that scan the globe each day, interpreted with the assistance of The Payne Institute for Public Policy at the Colorado School of Mines, to identify flaring sites and estimate flare volumes. To identify the location of the flaring, the flare data has been combined with metadata, obtained from several sources. Although the metadata is updated on a regular basis, changes may have taken place since the last update. If you believe a flaring field is misidentified, please contact us with the corrected data. GGFR has made every reasonable effort to ensure the data used and displayed has been obtained from reputable and reliable sources. GGFR and the World Bank are not responsible for any errors, omissions, or for the results obtained from the use of this information.
The World Bank’s 2022 Global Gas Flaring Tracker, a leading global and independent indicator of gas flaring, found that in 2021 144 billion cubic meters (bcm) of associated gas was flared.
Attribution and data sources:
Flare gas volumes - NOAA, the Payne Institute at the Colorado School of Mines, World Bank/GGFR
Oil production - EIA (Crude oil including lease condensate only)
The World Bank’s 2021 Global Gas Flaring Tracker, a leading global and independent indicator of gas flaring, found that from 2019 to 2020, oil production declined by 8 percent, while gas flaring dropped by 5 percent.
The World Bank’s Global Gas Flaring Tracker is the only global and independent indicator ofgas flaring found that in 2019 global gas flaring increased to levels last seen in 2009, to 150 billion cubic meters (bcm).
GGFR, in partnership with NOAA and the Colorado School of Mines, has developed global gas flaring estimates based upon observations from satellites launched in 2012 and 2017.
This document groups the various types of gas flaring at oil production facilities in three defined categories: routine flaring, safety flaring, and non-routine flaring.
For more information about GGFR, to join the partnership, or discuss collaboration opportunities, please contact us.
