African gas flaring offers opportunities and challenges

Sub-Saharan Africa is chronically starved of energy, and yet the region flares disproportionate volumes of gas every year

African governments and international bodies are attempting to reduce or at least discourage routine gas flaring, both for environmental reasons and to tap that unused energy resource. But the region still faces hurdles before it can utilise associated gas effectively. Africa—including the significant hydrocarbon-producing nations of North Africa—accounts for around 20pc of global flaring volumes but less than 10pc of oil production, according to the World Bank’s Global Gas Flaring Reduction Partnership. Algeria, Libya and Nigeria—among the continent’s largest producers—accounted for 70pc of the total in 2021. But World Bank data shows that sub-Saharan Africa still flared 13.66bn m³ in 2021—