Despite commitments to phase out routine gas flaring, global volumes have barely shifted, highlighting a persistent gap between solutions and deployment. Examples from Iraq, Brazil and Norway demonstrate how regulation, technology and investment can reduce emissions and capture value. The wider challenge is consistency and scale. Industry collaboration and knowledge sharing could help turn proven approaches into broader progress, reducing waste while supporting both energy security and climate objectives.
In a year in which global energy demand continued to increase, driven by growth in developing countries, and total investments in renewables exceeded $2 trillion for the first time, with wind and solar output growing nearly nine times faster than total energy demand, the role of oil and gas to deliver secure and affordable energy remained key. In 2024, it satisfied almost 60% of global energy demand.
Yet, despite many public commitments to eliminate routine flaring by 2030 and notable progress in some quarters, the amount of gas flared in producing this oil and gas remained stubbornly unchanged. In fact, the World Bank's 2025 Global Gas Flaring Tracker estimated a 2% increase in 2024.
This paradox highlights a challenge the industry knows well: Solutions exist, but technical and regulatory excellence must be shared to solve our systemic problems.
The Opportunity Landscape
Consider methane emissions. The International Energy Agency estimates 70% of energy sector emissions could be avoided with existing technologies, many of which could pay for themselves within a year. Leveraging current technology and sound economics, the industry has a real opportunity to scale deployment and unlock value.
This is the same for renewable energy integration, where the recent Spain-Portugal blackout highlighted infrastructure vulnerabilities. Advanced management technologies, from batteries to intelligent sensors, deliver excellent results where deployed, yet remain inconsistently distributed across networks requiring resilience upgrades.
Gas flaring follows a similar pattern. Despite decades of available capture and utilization technologies, the value of gas flared in 2024 would have been worth between $19 billion and $63 billion respectively (based on US Henry Hub and EU import gas prices in 2024). The opportunity now is to unlock proven solutions at scale through industry-wide collaboration to deliver transformational results.
The Evidence That Solutions Already Exist
Whilst flaring can often be reduced by optimizing existing operations, it sometimes requires substantial investments. The Basrah Gas Co. in Iraq exemplifies how an innovative commercial model and long-term development plans have the potential to create transformational results. Since 2013, this joint venture between Iraq’s South Gas Co., Shell and Mitsubishi has boosted gas recovery from 250 million to 950 million standard cubic feet per day, capturing associated gas from three major oil fields that was previously flared.
Countries that have made public commitments to end routine flaring and backed this up with regulatory oversight can drive operational excellence. In Brazil, where flared volumes are included in royalty calculations and licensees are required to submit monthly reports to the national regulator detailing daily flared and vented volumes, carbon dioxide emissions from natural gas flaring fell by 8% in 2024.
However, the global policy picture remains uneven. While countries such as Norway achieve near-zero flaring intensity through robust policy frameworks and systematic knowledge sharing, countries that have not made the Zero Routine Flaring commitment have an average flaring intensity that is 25 percent higher than in 2012.
Where Excellence Scales Through Collaboration
This is where the International Association of Oil & Gas Producers (IOGP) steps in, building on a more than 50-year track record that proves the transformational power of shared knowledge and technical expertise. Starting with safety collaboration, IOGP created the Life Saving Rules, Process Safety Fundamentals and Land Transport Safety Practices, contributing to more than a 90% reduction in fatal accident rates since the 1980s across 4 billion workhours in 2024.
Today, IOGP extends systematic collaboration to accelerate emissions reduction deployment. In partnership with organizations including Oil and Gas Climate Initiative, Environmental Defense Fund and other industry associations, IOGP has led technical development and support for the Oil and Gas Decarbonization Charter Methane and Flaring Framework, providing robust guidelines to help over 55 Charter signatories operating in 100+ countries effectively reduce methane emissions and eliminate routine flaring.
Through methane abatement, 100 billion cubic meters of natural gas could be supplied to markets every year — the same volume as Norway’s yearly gas exports.
The Case for Systematic Collaboration
The opportunity extends beyond emissions reduction. While process shifts, including methane reduction and zero flaring technologies in oil and gas, are expected to reduce emissions by 27%, they also deliver concrete commercial benefits. This includes reduced implementation costs, faster deployment of proven technologies, enhanced regulatory relationships through industry-wide standards and improved investor confidence through demonstrated sector progress.
As an example, IOGP’s procurement commoditization initiative JIP33 has published 55 standardized specifications that have been implemented by leading international oil companies and national oil companies across 90 projects worldwide, with cost, schedule and quality benefits to billions of dollars of equipment procurement. Such initiatives are imperative given the oil and gas industry’s capital expenditures have increased by 53% over the last four years (as of December 2024).
Other collaborative initiatives reinforce the point. The Global Methane Pledge, now backed by 159 countries, has mobilized over $2 billion in grants, with additional project finance flowing from The World Bank Global Flaring and Methane Reduction Partnership, which has begun work in over a dozen countries that account for about one-quarter of the oil and gas sector’s methane emissions.
Turning Opportunity Into Action
With 151 Bcm of associated gas estimated to have been flared at upstream oil and gas facilities in 2024, the data is clear. The energy sector stands at an inflection point where individual excellence and systematic collaboration must combine to deliver transformational outcomes.
As a convening platform for operators, technology providers, financial institutions and policymakers from every major energy region, Adipec 2025 serves as the obvious, near-term platform to accelerate the diffusion of industry excellence.
While measurable progress requires substantial infrastructure investments over years, the potential for industry wide collaboration to accelerate these solutions — and at lower costs — has never been greater. It’s about turning local excellence into global impact, because when we work together, we achieve what none of us could accomplish alone.
Graham Henley is the CEO of the International Association of Oil & Gas Producers.
Source: Energy Intelligence
