ASixteenYearRecordofGasFlaring VolumeEstimatesforS.E.

Asia
August9,2010
ChrisElvidge EarthObservationGroup NOAANationalGeophysicalDataCenter DanielZiskin,KimberlyBaugh,BenTuttle,TiloGhosh CooperativeInstituteforResearchintheEnvironmentalSciences UniversityofColorado

Flaring is a widely used practice for the disposal of associated gas at oil production facilities in remote locations and poor countries. While flaring is a waste and there are technologies to make use of the gas, flaring is still better than venting.

Visible

The U.S. Air Force Defense Meteorological Satellite Program (DMSP) Operational Linescan System (OLS) has a Unique capability to collect low-light imagery.

Thermal

Polar orbiting 3000 km swath 2.7 km ground sample distance (GSD) Two spectral bands: visible and thermal Nightly global coverage Flown since 1972 Will continue till ~2012

Total Number of Coverages

Total Number of Cloud-Free Coverages

Average Digital Number of Lights x Percent Frequency of Detection

Mollweide Projection 1 km Equal Area Grid Average Digital Number of Lights x Percent Frequency of Detection

Nigeria
F162004 = Red F141998 = Green F101992 = Blue Vectors drawn on gas flares.

HighresolutionimageryinGoogleEarthusedto confirmtheidentityofflaresandtoremovefalse detections.

10

Google Earth used to confirm the identity of flares

Global

BCM

Google Earth used to confirm the identity of flares

ForThePast16YearsGasFlaringHasBeen RelativelyConstantinThe150170BCMRange
GlobalGasFlaringVolumesEstimatedFromDMSPData InBillionsofCubicMeters
GASFLAREVOLUME(BCM)

200 150 100 50 0

14

TOP20FLARINGCOUNTRIES2009
50 45 40

GasFlaring(BCM)

35 30 25 20 15 10 5 0

15

Nigeria
35 30

GasFlaring(BCM)

25 20 15 10 5 0
F12BCM F14BCM F15BCM F16BCM

16

EstimatedGasFlared(BCM)
10 20 30 40 50 60 70 0

Russia

17

GasFlaringinS.E.Asia
Brunei
0.6 0.5

GasFlaring[BCM]

0.4 0.3 0.2 0.1 0

F12BCM F14BCM F15BCM F16BCM

18

GasFlaringinS.E.Asia
East_Timor
0.2 0.18 0.16

GasFlaring[BCM]

0.14 0.12 0.1 0.08 0.06 0.04 0.02 0

F12BCM F14BCM F15BCM F16BCM

19

GasFlaringinS.E.Asia
Indonesia
8 7

GasFlaring[BCM]

6 5 4 3 2 1 0
F12BCM F14BCM F15BCM F16BCM

20

GasFlaringinS.E.Asia
Malaysia
2 1.8 1.6

GasFlaring[BCM]

1.4 1.2 1 0.8 0.6 0.4 0.2 0

F12BCM F14BCM F15BCM F16BCM

21

GasFlaringinS.E.Asia
Myanmar
0.045 0.04 0.035

GasFlaring[BCM]

0.03 0.025 0.02 0.015 0.01 0.005 0

F12BCM F14BCM F15BCM F16BCM

22

GasFlaringinS.E.Asia
PNG
0.45 0.4 0.35

GasFlaring[BCM]

0.3 0.25 0.2 0.15 0.1 0.05 0

F12BCM F14BCM F15BCM F16BCM

23

GasFlaringinS.E.Asia
Philippines
0.1 0.09 0.08

GasFlaring[BCM]

0.07 0.06 0.05 0.04 0.03 0.02 0.01 0

F12BCM F14BCM F15BCM F16BCM

24

GasFlaringinS.E.Asia
Thailand
0.3 0.25

GasFlaring[BCM]

0.2
F12BCM F14BCM F15BCM

0.15

0.1

F16BCM

0.05

25

GasFlaringinS.E.Asia
Vietnam
1 0.9 0.8

GasFlaring[BCM]

0.7 0.6 0.5 0.4 0.3 0.2 0.1 0

F12BCM F14BCM F15BCM F16BCM

26

Summary
Theflaringofnaturalgashasremainedlargely constantoverthepast16years,intherangeof150 to170billioncubicmetersperyear. Gasflaringdeclined19%from2005to2008,then wentupby5%in2009. Mostoftheincreasein2009camefromRussia, whichistheleadingcountryingasflaring. Itwouldbepossibletomakeaspatialgridofflare gasemissionscoveringthe16yearrecord.Such gridsmaybeusefulforatmosphericstudies.
27