Regulations are failing to manage methane from oil production
Based on Raphael Calel and Paasha Mahdavi. 2020. "The unintended consequences of antiflaring policies—and measures for mitigation." Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS).
Bans on flaring – burning off methane gas that leaks out as a natural byproduct of oil production – aren’t working, and could even be incentivizing direct releases of methane into the air.
The Policy Problem
Oil reservoirs contain significant quantities of methane, a powerful greenhouse gas that can leak out when oil is produced. At oil wells around the world, more than 140 billion cubic meters of methane is burned off or “flared” every year, transforming it into carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases that contribute to climate change. Just as much methane is directly released or “vented,” which can make as much as a 16 greater contribution to global warming over time. Flaring and venting together waste 8% of global natural gas production annually, contribute 6% of global emissions, and disperse a range of pollutants that harm human health and local environments. Yet current efforts to curtail the problem are struggling to make headway.
Key Findings and Proposed Solutions
Current policies to manage methane at oil sites are flawed: not only do they fail to prevent flaring, they also incentivize methane venting and leakage.
Subsidizing pipelines and gas processing sites can reduce flaring, but will increase overall greenhouse gas emissions.
Governments should design new production taxes that, if adopted as the primary means of financing gas infrastructure, would counteract many of the
effects on downstream emissions.
Governments should fund the development of satellites and other remote-sensing techniques for detecting methane emissions, which would give regulators the tools they need to effectively curb venting and flaring.