A Sixteen Year Record of Gas Flaring Volume Estimates for S.E. Asia 

August 9, 2010

Chris ElvidgeEarth Observation Group

NOAA National Geophysical Data Center

Daniel Ziskin, Kimberly Baugh, Ben Tuttle, Tilo GhoshCooperative Institute for Research in the Environmental Sciences

University of Colorado

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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.

3

The U.S. Air ForceDefense Meteorological Satellite Program (DMSP)Operational Linescan System (OLS) has aUnique capability to collect low-light imagery.

Polar orbiting3000 km swath2.7 km ground sample

distance (GSD)Two spectral bands:

visible and thermalNightly global coverageFlown since 1972Will continue till ~2012

Visible

Thermal

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 GridAverage Digital Number of Lights x Percent Frequency of Detection

Nigeria

F162004 = RedF141998 = GreenF101992 = Blue

Vectors drawn ongas flares.

High resolution imagery in Google Earth used to confirm the identity of flares and to remove false detections.  

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Global B

CM

Google Earthused to confirm the identity of flares

Google Earthused to confirm the identity of flares

For The Past 16 Years Gas Flaring Has Been Relatively Constant in The 150‐170 BCM Range 

14

0

50

100

150

200

GAS FLARE

 VOLU

ME (BCM

)

Global Gas Flaring Volumes Estimated From DMSP Data In Billions of Cubic Meters

15

0

5

10

15

20

25

30

35

40

45

50

Gas Flaring

 (BCM

)TOP 20 FLARING COUNTRIES 2009

16

0

5

10

15

20

25

30

35

Gas Flaring

 (BCM

)Nigeria

F12 BCM

F14 BCM

F15 BCM

F16 BCM

17

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

Estimated

 Gas Flared (BCM

)Russia

Gas Flaring in S.E. Asia

18

0

0.1

0.2

0.3

0.4

0.5

0.6

Gas Flaring

 [BCM

]Brunei

F12 BCM

F14 BCM

F15 BCM

F16 BCM

Gas Flaring in S.E. Asia

19

0

0.02

0.04

0.06

0.08

0.1

0.12

0.14

0.16

0.18

0.2

Gas Flaring

 [BCM

]East_Timor

F12 BCM

F14 BCM

F15 BCM

F16 BCM

Gas Flaring in S.E. Asia

20

0

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8Gas Flaring

 [BCM

]Indonesia

F12 BCM

F14 BCM

F15 BCM

F16 BCM

Gas Flaring in S.E. Asia

21

0

0.2

0.4

0.6

0.8

1

1.2

1.4

1.6

1.8

2

Gas Flaring

 [BCM

]Malaysia

F12 BCM

F14 BCM

F15 BCM

F16 BCM

Gas Flaring in S.E. Asia

22

0

0.005

0.01

0.015

0.02

0.025

0.03

0.035

0.04

0.045

Gas Flaring

 [BCM

]Myanmar

F12 BCM

F14 BCM

F15 BCM

F16 BCM

Gas Flaring in S.E. Asia

23

0

0.05

0.1

0.15

0.2

0.25

0.3

0.35

0.4

0.45Gas Flaring

 [BCM

]PNG

F12 BCM

F14 BCM

F15 BCM

F16 BCM

Gas Flaring in S.E. Asia

24

0

0.01

0.02

0.03

0.04

0.05

0.06

0.07

0.08

0.09

0.1Gas Flaring

 [BCM

]Philippines

F12 BCM

F14 BCM

F15 BCM

F16 BCM

Gas Flaring in S.E. Asia

25

0

0.05

0.1

0.15

0.2

0.25

0.3Gas Flaring

 [BCM

]Thailand

F12 BCM

F14 BCM

F15 BCM

F16 BCM

Gas Flaring in S.E. Asia

26

0

0.1

0.2

0.3

0.4

0.5

0.6

0.7

0.8

0.9

1Gas Flaring

 [BCM

]Vietnam

F12 BCM

F14 BCM

F15 BCM

F16 BCM

Summary• The flaring of natural gas has remained largely constant over the past 16 years, in the range of 150 to 170 billion cubic meters per year.

• Gas flaring declined 19% from 2005 to 2008, then went up by 5% in 2009.  

• Most of the increase in 2009 came from Russia, which is the leading country in gas flaring.

• It would be possible to make a spatial grid of flare gas emissions covering the 16 year record.  Such grids may be useful for atmospheric studies.

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