PERTH (miningweekly.com) – Western Australia has become the first Australian signatory to the World Bank’s Zero Routine Flaring by 2030 initiative.
Western Australian Minister for Mines and Petroleum, Bill Johnston on Wednesday told delegates at the AOG conference that the commitment would be reinforced by strengthening regulation as part of the implementation of the recommendations from the independent scientific inquiry into hydraulic fracture stimulation.
“Worldwide, flaring by petroleum companies annually burns about 140-billion cubic metres of natural gas and emits more than 300-million tons of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere,” Johnston said on Wednesday.
“If this much gas was used for power generation, it would generate about 750-billion kilowatt hours of electricity, or more than the African continent's current annual electricity consumption.”
The Minister said that the initiative is focused on routine wellhead flaring during production, not exploration testing and emergency situations, or at oil refineries such as Kwinana.
Other signatories included the US, France, the state of Alberta, in Canada, Norway, Qatar, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan and Kuwait. A number of countries have also signed up to the initiative, including Chevron, BP, Shell, ExxonMobil, the Kuwait Oil Company, Total, Qatar Petroleum and Eni.