The Road to Zero Routine Gas Flaring: A Case Study from Saudi Arabia

Gas is envisaged as the fuel of choice in the power sector and is ideal for helping to transition toward clean, sustainable, and affordable energy access. As vital as gas is for electricity generation, the petrochemical industry, the transportation sector, and heating, many oil operators either flare or vent associated gas, a by-product of oil extraction, at the wellhead or gathering stations. Gas flaring releases greenhouse gases (GHGs) into the atmosphere. It occurs for various reasons, including infrastructure and financial constraints to capture the gas, inadequate regulatory frameworks, or binding contractual rights. The World Bank estimated the amount of flared natural gas in the oil and gas industry reached 5.1 trillion cubic feet (tcf) in 2018 (World Bank 2018). The amount of energy lost due to flaring or venting this gas is equivalent to more than 770 billion kilowatt-hours (kWh). It releases more than 310 million tonnes of carbon equivalent. Many countries and oil operators have managed to mitigate gas flaring and venting across their oil and gas value chains due to these troubling statistics. One such example is the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. Before 1975, the Saudi oil and gas industry flared or vented over 4 billion standard cubic feet (SCF) of associated gas, a by-product of oil extraction. The flaring intensity would have increased had it not been for the construction of Saudi Arabia’s Master Gas System (MGS). The Kingdom’s gas flaring mitigation process is a successful case study of how governments and oil operators can collaborate to eliminate gas flaring by developing a domestic market for gas and enhancing the value of natural gas resources. It also demonstrates the successful transition that the kingdom had in the past five decades to achieve zero flaring through technology deployment and advancing the "reduce" component of the circular carbon economy. This paper discusses Saudi Arabia’s progress in gas flaring, the measures the government has taken thus far, and how operators have adapted to them. It also identifies many lessons learned and technological solutions that could be scaled up on a national or a corporate level to reduce gas flaring towards achieving zero routine flaring targets, especially in cases where the state owns hydrocarbon assets and leases them to private operators.