Russia Will Not Meet Its 2011 Gas Flare Curbing Deadline

Prime Minister Vladimir Putin's plans, of curbing Russian gas flares to 5 percent by 2011, went up in flames on Thursday, when the Energy and Natural Resources ministries announced that the country would be unable to sustain such massive cuts in such a short time. Instead, the two state departments said that 2014 would most likely see most changes in this area. The officials have yet to name a reason for their decision.
 

Official state estimates say that Russia burns 13 billion dollars’ worth of gas in its flares yearly, and mounting political consent has prompted the government to recently start threatening the large gas companies with heavy fines if they don't recalibrate their production facilities, so as not to waste so much of the precious resources. At the moment, the country is the largest natural gas exporter in the world and some say that its gas flaring is only second to that of Nigeria, while other independent experts say that Russia has long since taken first place.
 

With flaring, thousands of tonnes of carbon dioxide are sent hurling into the atmosphere each day, which contribute to the overall global warming effect our planet has been experiencing for the past years. And while the Earth naturally goes through cooling and heating cycles, this one is different because centuries of polluting activities have saturated the air with carbon, which, in turn, can cause severe weather anomalies, including stronger storms, droughts, and floods.
 

Gazprom Neft, a part of the largest Russian company, Gazprom, which has monopoly over external sales, reported that the giant would invest 17.6 billion roubles ($714.6 million) into refitting its installations between 2008 and 2010. A similar attitude was employed by Rosneft, the largest oil producer and gas flarer in the country, which said that the next few years would see 2.74 billion dollars’ worth of investments on its part, in gas management.