Material Insights · Understanding the Material World

Flare and off-gas recovery: Engineering and integration

Recovering routine flows without blocking the safety flare

What this tab covers Engineering and operating integration: how tightly it is coupled to the host process, how steady the waste stream is, and how hard it is to retrofit.

Recovery must never block the flare's safety role, and upstream gas flows decline as fields age. Both points shape how plants are sized.

Process interdependence (coupling risk)

Favourable

A flare is first a safety device that relieves pressure in an emergency. Flare gas recovery therefore takes only routine flows from the header, and the flare stays in place for upsets. If recovery fails, the gas simply flares again and the host keeps running. Policy reflects this split. The World Bank's Zero Routine Flaring by 2030 initiative targets routine flaring only, and IEA estimates that ending non-emergency flaring could free about 100 bcm a year.12

Gas available from ending non-emergency flaring about 100 bcm/y2

Load factor and intermittency

Mixed

Refinery and mine streams are fairly steady, though composition varies. The Iranian refinery study added some natural gas to keep compressor feed constant. Recovery is usually sized below peak flow. That plant was designed to capture about 70% of its flaring, about 12 million m3 a year. Associated gas declines as the oil field ages. Some flaring is at small, remote wells where volumes are too low to justify a pipeline.78

Share of refinery flaring recovered (design case) about 70%, about 12 million m3/y8 Italian refinery unit size 400 kg/h liquid-ring compressor7

Footprint and retrofit complexity

Mixed

Refinery flare gas recovery is a compact compressor package on an existing header and is a common brownfield retrofit. Upstream recovery often needs new gathering lines, processing and an offtaker, which is the main barrier. Nine countries (Russia, Iran, Iraq, Venezuela, Mexico, Libya, Algeria, Nigeria and the US) produced 83% of flaring in 2025 but only 46% of oil. Russia alone produced 18%. Progress is possible: Kazakhstan has cut flaring by 87% since 2012, and the US cut 0.4 bcm (7%) in 2025.456

Share of flaring in top nine countries 83% (46% of oil output), 20255 Russia's share 18% (2025)5 Kazakhstan flaring cut since 2012 87%4

Sources

  1. Global gas flaring hits highest level since 2007 (Global Gas Flaring Tracker 2025, covering 2024) World Bank, 2025
  2. Global Methane Tracker 2026: Key findings International Energy Agency, 2026
  3. 2026 Global Gas Flaring Tracker report (publication page, covering 2025) World Bank, 2026
  4. Global Gas Flaring Tracker 2026 (full report, covering 2025; copy hosted by DevelopmentAid) World Bank, Global Flaring and Methane Reduction Partnership, 2026
  5. Global gas flaring rises, undermining energy security (press release, 23 June 2026) World Bank, 2026
  6. Energy efficiency improvement in oil refineries through flare gas recovery technique to meet the emission trading targets (Comodi, Renzi and Rossi), Energy 109 Elsevier (abstract via RePEc/IDEAS), 2016
  7. Thermo-economical evaluation of producing liquefied natural gas and natural gas liquids from flare gases (Barekat-Rezaei et al.), Energies 11(7) 1868 MDPI (peer-reviewed), 2018