World bank has commended Nigeria for reducing gas flaring, saying they have done well.

World bank said, Nigeria significantly contributed to global gas flare reduction in 2022.

According to the report, the  progress in reducing gas flaring resumed in 2022, with gas flared worldwide falling by 5 billion cubic meters (Bcm) to 139 Bcm, with it’s the lowest level since 2010.

The report was contained in a new satellite data compiled by the World Bank’s Global Gas Flaring Reduction Partnership (GGFR).

The institution said, global gas flaring volumes fell in 2022 by around 3 per cent, which is a welcome drop, especially during a time of concern about energy security for many countries.

Guangzhe Chen, World Bank Vice President for Infrastructure, said: “We continue to encourage all oil producers to seize opportunities to end this polluting and wasteful practice”.

According to the bank, three countries, Nigeria, Mexico, and the United States, accounted for most of the decline in global gas flaring in 2022.Two other countries Kazakhstan and Colombia stand out for consistently reducing flaring volumes in the last seven years, it said.

In addition to the overall reduction in flare volume, global flaring intensity the amount of flaring per barrel of oil produced also fell to its lowest level since satellite data began, due to the 5 per cent increase in oil production in 2022. This indicates a gradual and sustained decoupling of oil production from flaring.

Despite this progress, the top nine flaring countries continue to be responsible for the vast majority of flaring, with Russia, Iraq, Iran, Algeria, Venezuela, the United States, Mexico, Libya, and Nigeria accounting for nearly three-quarters of flare volumes and under half of global oil production.

The satellite data shows that decreased Russian gas exports to the European Union did not increase gas flaring in Russia. Throughout 2022, the European Union significantly increased its liquefied natural gas (LNG) imports from the United States, Angola, Norway, Qatar, and Egypt, and via pipeline from Azerbaijan and Norway.

Of these countries, only the United States, Angola, and Egypt have made substantial progress in converting associated gas that would otherwise be flared into LNG exports.

The bank said that in 2022 gas flaring released 357 million tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalents, 315 million tonnes in the form of carbon dioxide and 42 million tonnes in the form of methane.

It also considers the state of the science and the uncertainty surrounding how much methane is released from flaring.

It finds that methane emissions due to flaring could be significantly higher than previously estimated. For example, if the average flare is just five percentage points less efficient at combusting methane, then globally, the amount of methane released would be three times higher than currently estimated.

Zubin Bamji, the World Bank’s GGFR Program Manager,said: “We’re concerned by the amount of methane emitted through flaring, particularly from flares that are not working properly. Methane is a far more potent greenhouse gas than carbon dioxide in the short term. So, we need to understand this more and are ramping up our efforts to help developing countries tackle methane emissions”.