Reducing gas flaring in Russia: Gloomy outlook in times of economic insecurity

Reducing Russia,s high levels of Associated Petroleum Gas (APG) flaring has been high on the Russian political agenda since 2007. In 2009 a decree requiring APG utilization of minimum 95 percent was adopted, valid from 1 January 2012. The oil industry has implemented various measures to reduce flaring, but not to a sufficiently large extent to make the 2012 deadline. This paper concludes that the utilization goal could be reached within 3–5 years if there is political will and the oil industry is given appropriate enabling measures. However, in a time of economic insecurity, domestically as well as in Russia’s primary export market in Europe, maintaining the status quo to ensure political stability is likely to be prioritized by the authorities at the expense of investments and structural reform which may be a premise for reaching the APG utilization goal.