Russia still undisputed leader in gas flaring
MOSCOW. Nov 25 (Interfax) - Russia remains the world leader in flaring of associated petroleum gas, the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) and KPMG said in an annual report.
Russia flared 35.2 billion cubic meters of gas in 2010, or 26% of the all the gas flared in the world, and more than twice as much as the next-worst offender Nigeria, according to the report on the problems and outlook for the use of associated petroleum gas in Russia.
However, compared to 2009 gas flaring in Russia decreased by 11.4 bcm, the biggest drop since 2006. Russia reduced gas flaring by a total of 14.8 bcm in the period from 2006 through 2010, helping to reduce the global figure to 134 bcm from 162 bcm.
Only Surgutneftegas and Tatneft recover about 95% of associated gas (95.9% and 94.7% respectively). The lowest figures are still at Gazprom Neft , Rosneft and Russneft , which recover respectively 55.2%, 56.2% and 70% of associated gas. Rosneft even reduced its recovery rate last year, by nearly 11 percentage points.
Investment in production and development in Russia's so-called new production regions - Nenets and Yamalo-Nenets autonomous districts, northern Krasnoyarsk Territory - far exceeds investment in gas processing, the report said. This is why these regions are expected to lead in terms of low associated gas recovery rates in coming years. However, in the regions of traditional production, such as the Khanty-Mansi Autonomous District, the consequences of inefficient associated gas use have been recognized and steps are being taken to recover this gas.
If additional steps are not taken, Russia will not meet its goal of recovering 95% of associated gas by 2012, the report warned.
The joint implementation projects that have begun to be carried out in Russia under the Kyoto Protocol have demonstrated their effectiveness, the report said. Due to the effectiveness and importance of the financial mechanism of such projects, it is important that Russia's position in international negotiations on the second period of obligations under the Kyoto Protocol facilitated future additional financing of projects aimed at resource conservation and energy efficiency, including the recovery of associated gas, the authors of the report said.
The WWF also urged the government to adopt more effective measures, including incentives and fines, combined with active monitoring of the activities of resource companies. Other possible measures include the introduction of a differentiated natural resource extraction tax (NRET); handing over management of associated gas metering to a fiscal agency; and redistribution of excess flaring quotas within each company from fields where gas recovery projects are impossible to fields where recovery is more economically attractive, the report said.