The World Bank  says Russia, Iraq, Iran, the United States, Algeria, Venezuela and Nigeria remain the top seven gas flaring countries for nine years running.

The World Bank disclosed  this in its gas flaring satellite data for 2020, through its World Bank Global Gas Flaring Reduction Partnership (GGFR) on Wednesday in Washington DC.

It added that the satellite which was first launched in 2012 has tracked flaring from the countries mentioned, which produce 40% of global crude oil output but account for 65% of all flared gasses.

It said the seven countries produced 40 per cent of the world’s oil each year, but accounted for roughly two-thirds (65 per cent) of global gas flaring.

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“This trend is indicative of ongoing, though differing challenges facing these countries.

“For example, the U.S. has thousands of individual flare sites, difficult to connect to a market.

“However, a few high flaring oil fields in East Siberia in the Russian Federation are extremely remote, lacking the infrastructure to capture and transport the associated gas.”

The report said that 2020 was an unprecedented year for the oil and gas industry, with oil production declining by eight per cent, while global gas flaring reduced by five per cent.

It also said that oil production dropped from 82 million barrels per day (mbpd) in 2019 to 76 mbpd in 2020, as global gas flaring reduced from 150 billion cubic meters (bcm) in 2019 to 142 bcm in 2020.