Gas flares are leaking five times more methane!

In many oil and gas producing regions, flames light up the sky, flares burn 98 percent of escaping natural gas, oil and gas companies; But observations of three US oil and gas fields show that the efficiency is only about 91 percent, the scientists report. Making up the difference would be the equivalent of taking almost 3 million cars off the road.

The natural gas leak is mainly methane, this greenhouse gas only lasts nine to ten years in the atmosphere, but its warming potential is 80 times greater than that of carbon dioxide; So, oil and gas companies light flares, burning the methane to produce less potent carbon dioxide and water. Scientists sent planes to take air samples over more than 300 flares in the Bakken Basin in North Dakota and the Permian and Eagle Ford basins in Texas, which account for more than 80 percent of U.S. flaring. The samples showed five times more unburned methane than previously estimated.

The drop from 98 to 91 percent efficiency may seem small, but the effects are big, half of the difference being due to flares not burning. The flares were predicted to show a variety of efficiencies, but did not expect to see so many quenched flares. Between 3 and 5 percent of the flares didn’t work at all, if those fires were ignited and 98 percent efficient, the result could remove the equivalent of about 13 million metric tons of carbon from the atmosphere.