An estimated $10 million worth of gas is being flared every day at a plant near the Finnish border that would normally be exported to Germany.
At a time when in Europe the high cost of energy is developing into a nightmare ahead of winter, the Russia seems to be burning huge amounts of natural gaseven exacerbating climate change according to an analysis presented by the BBC.
An estimated $10 million worth of gas is being flared every day at a plant near the Finnish border that would normally be exported to Germany. But in addition to the energy waste, scientists are particularly concerned about the high levels of carbon dioxide and soot created by this incomplete combustion (flaring), which could worsen the melting of the ice in the Arctic.
Rstad Energy’s analysis shows that around 4.34 million cubic meters of natural gas are flared daily.
Incomplete combustion is noted at a new liquefied natural gas (LNG) plant in Portovaya, northwest of St. Petersburg. The first signs that something was amiss came from Finnish citizens living near the border with Russia, who noticed a large flame on the horizon earlier this summer.
The Portovaya plant is located near a compressor station where the Nordstream 1 subsea pipeline, which transports gas to Germany, begins. Supplies through the pipeline have been restricted since mid-July, with the Russians citing technical issues for the restriction and Germany responding that it is a purely political move following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. But since June, researchers they noticed a significant increase of the heat emitted by the facility – believed to be due to the burning of natural gas.
Although gas flaring is common practice at processing plants – usually for technical or safety reasons – the scale of this flaring has experts questioning.
But in addition to releasing about 9,000 tons of CO2 equivalent each day, combustion causes other significant problems.
“It is of great concern that the incomplete combustion of the gas could travel to Arctic latitudes and the emitted black carbon be transported northwards, where it deposits in snow and ice and significantly accelerates melting,” said Professor Matthew Johnson, from Carleton University, Canada. Black carbon is the name given to soot particles produced through the incomplete combustion of fuels such as natural gas.
“Some well-known estimates already place intensive gas burning as the dominant source of black carbon deposition in the Arctic, and any increases in incomplete burning in this region are highly undesirable.”
Gazprom, the Russian state energy giant that owns the plant, did not respond to the BBC’s request for comment.
* Pictured: color version of the COPERNICUS satellite image captures infrared radiation from gas burning at the Portovaya plant
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