Skip to main content

Natural Gas Flaring and Venting: Opportunities to Improve Data and Reduce Emissions

GAO-04-809 Published: Jul 14, 2004. Publicly Released: Aug 13, 2004.
Jump To:
Skip to Highlights

Highlights

Since 1995, the average price of natural gas in the United States has almost tripled as demand has grown faster than supply. Despite this increase, natural gas is regularly lost as it is burned (flared) and released into the atmosphere (vented) during the production of oil and gas. GAO was asked to (1) describe flaring and venting data and what the federal government could do to improve them; (2) report, on the basis of available information, on the extent of flaring and venting and their contributions to greenhouse gases; and (3) identify opportunities for the federal government to reduce flaring and venting.

Recommendations

Recommendations for Executive Action

Agency Affected Recommendation Status
Energy Information Administration The Secretary of Energy should explore opportunities for improving data on flaring and venting and to weigh the cost and benefit of making such improvements. Such opportunities could be considering the use of the department's authority to collect flaring and venting information directly from the producing companies.
Closed – Implemented
EIA considered the recommendation to collect flaring and venting information directly from the producing companies when implementing a new version of a survey of natural gas producers (form EIA-914). Comments received indicated that producers' records related to venting and flaring (and the corresponding submissions) would not support valid estimation of volumes vented and flared. An additional independent survey aimed primarily at assessing the volume of natural gas vented and flared would add a significant reporting burdens to natural gas producers causing them substantial investments. Also, EIA weighed the cost to other programs of redirecting EIA's resources from core energy supply and disposition programs to suppor this activity. After considering all the options, EIA decided not to collect this information directly from producers.
Energy Information Administration The Secretary of Energy should explore opportunities for improving data on flaring and venting and to weigh the cost and benefit of making such improvements. Such opportunities could be working with industry and state officials, and using guidance already in existence, to enhance guidelines for reporting consistent flaring and venting data.
Closed – Implemented
EIA is working with the Interstate Oil and Gas Compact Commission (an organization of oil and gas producing states that are each responsible for the development and regulation of the oil and gas resources within that state) to improve the quality, timeliness, and coverage of production data collected by the States and subsequently submitted to EIA. Even though EIA has a monthly survey of producers to collect more timely production data, EIA relies on the more detailed annual data provided by State offices for a comprehensive assessment of production activities. Since one of the detailed data elements collected by States continues to be the volumes vented and flared, EIA will continue its efforts to work with the States to address issues of comprehensiveness and accuracy of such data. EIA considers this item implemented and closed.
Energy Information Administration The Secretary of Energy should explore opportunities for improving data on flaring and venting and to weigh the cost and benefit of making such improvements. Such opportunities could be considering, in consultation with the Environmental Protection Agency, the Mineral Management Service (MMS), and the Bureau of Land Management (BLM), how to best collect separate statistics on flaring and venting.
Closed – Implemented
EIA considered the recommendations provided by GAO in light of available resources and other priorities for improvement. EIA continually works with MMS and BLM to improve the quality and of production statistics. This collaboration includes efforts to improve the quality of data related to venting and flaring. While EPA's STAR program is a voluntary partnership with industry aimed at reducing natural gas emissions by producers, processors, transporters, and distributors, the program does not lend itself to systematic, statistically valid measurement of volumes vented and flared. EIA considers this item implemented and closed.
Energy Information Administration The Secretary of Energy should explore opportunities for improving data on flaring and venting and to weigh the cost and benefit of making such improvements. Such opportunities could be considering working with the Secretary of Commerce to provide EIA access to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's analysis of satellite data to improve the accuracy of worldwide data on flaring.
Closed – Not Implemented
EIA considered the recommendations provided by GAO in light of available resources and other priorities for improvement. EIA does not have a program for the collection of venting and flaring data from international well operators or from other countries. Rather, EIA relies upon data provided by international agencies. Further, EIA does not have the expertise or resources to assess satellite imagery. In light of available resources and other priorities, as well as the level of effort implied by pursuing this approach, EIA will not proceed along the lines of using satellite data to improve the accuracy of worldwide data on flaring. EIA considers this item closed.
Department of the Interior For federal oil and gas leases, the Secretary of the Interior should direct MMS and BLM to consider the cost and benefit of requiring that companies flare the natural gas, whenever possible, when flaring or venting is necessary.
Closed – Implemented
The Department of the Interior, in a response dated June 15, 2006, outlined actions it has taken in response to GAO's recommendation to require flaring instead of venting at oil wells. Specifically, MMS completed a cost/benefit review of requiring offshore operators to flare natural gas instead of venting it. MMS estimated that 80% of the current production facilities are not equipped with flare tips and that it would cost an average of $150,000 per facility to install the equipment to flare the natural gas. BLM also conducted a cost/benefit review of requiring flaring. The agency concluded that onshore operations occurring on Federal and Indian lands contribute a very small portion of greenhouse gas emissions (less than .07 percent). The total cost to implement flaring at those locations where venting is now occurring would require an estimated $18 million dollars. BLM also concluded that onshore operations do not economically lend themselves to flaring due to the aerial expanse of onshore oil and gas facilities. BLM does have flaring and venting guidance in place for approving/accounting for flared and vented gas which directs the operator to weigh the value of flaring versus venting after considering the trade-off in environmental degradation and cost to the operator. DOI stated that in the U.S. there are no established standards for assigning a monetary value to methane emissions. The cost to industry of flaring over venting outweighs the benefits to industry and therefore does not support requiring flaring. If the U.S. were to adopt a standard similar to what is used in Europe to establish a monetary value for reducing methane emissions, these analyses results would support requiring flaring.
Department of the Interior For federal oil and gas leases, the Secretary of the Interior should direct MMS and BLM to consider the cost and benefit of requiring that companies use flaring and venting meters to improve oversight.
Closed – Implemented
The Department of the Interior, in a response dated June 15, 2006, described actions taken in response to GAO's recommendation of metering flared and/or vented natural gas. Specifically, BLM completed a cost/benefit analysis of requiring operators to meter flared and vented natural gas volumes and review the current methods used to account for flared and vented volumes. BLM estimated the cost to install flare or vent metering equipment to be $32 million, and an additional $5 million in annual operating expenses. Since BLM administers many scattered wells (around 70,000), the agency concluded that there is no benefit to knowing the volume over the current methods used to estimate volumes. Also, BLM engineers would be required to inspect this equipment for compliance and accuracy -- thus significantly increasing the workload of these engineers. In addition, the MMS completed a cost/benefit analysis for offshore production facilities. This analysis supported requiring meters on facilities that process more than 2000 barrels of oil per day. The agency has proposed revisions to 30 CFR 250, subpart K to require operators to install a meter to measure flared or vented gas on facilities that process more than 2,000 barrels of oil per day.

Full Report

GAO Contacts

Office of Public Affairs

Topics

Air pollutionAir pollution controlCrude oilData collectionData integrityEnvironmental monitoringGas resourcesInternational relationsNatural gasNatural gas pricesNatural gas supply shortagesPetroleum industryReporting requirementsGreenhouse gasses