EU / AFRICA / MENA – Five European oil and gas majors rank among the top 10 largest polluters in Africa and the Middle East when it comes to gas flaring, reveals this investigative series. These companies include Shell, BP, ENI, TotalEnergies and Perenco, as revealed by the Environmental Investigative Forum (EIF) and the media network European Investigative Collaborations (EIC), Daraj Media, SourceMaterial and Oxpeckers Investigative Environmental Journalism.
The consortium, supported by 14 other media partners, spent over a year investigating flaring emissions emitted across 18 countries between 2012 and 2022, in what is the largest investigation to date on this topic.
Flaring, which consists in burning natural gas as part of the fossil fuel supply chain, is a key driver of climate change and comes at catastrophic costs for local biospheres and populations alike.
Using a hybrid approach that combined data work and field reporting, the consortium reveals that the flaring emissions are largely underestimated by the current international standards, and sometimes even underreported by multinationals themselves, such as BP, TotalEnergies and ENI.
Oxpeckers, Daraj and their partners – Al-Mirbad, Twala and NIRIJ – used this unique dataset on gas flaring to estimate the key “super-emitting” licences and further document the disastrous consequences for the local population in Angola, Iraq, Egypt, Tunisia and Algeria.
According to the World Bank and the U.S. Energy Information Administration, around 200 billion dollars of investments are needed to put an end to raw methane emissions and end routine flaring. This would make only 5% of the 4 trillions dollars of profits made by the global fossil fuel sector in 2022.
Meanwhile, flaring continues. 38 millions tons of CO2 equivalent have been emitted worldwide in 2023, more than the annual emissions of a country such as France for the previous year.
Photo: A burning flare on the side of the road in Shaikan province, Iraq (c) Network of Iraqi Reporters for Investigative Journalism (NIRIJ) & DARAJ
PUBLICATIONS
- Shell verlaagt z’n gasuitstoot door olievelden in Nigeria af te stoten – maar het affakkelen gaat heviger door, NRC, 27/09/2024
- Las antorchas de las petroleras europeas envenenan el aire en África y Oriente Próximo, InfoLibre, 27/09/2024
- « Burning Skies » : les chiffres cachés des flammes toxiques des géants pétroliers, Le Soir, 27/09/2024
- Iza otrovnih plamenova velikih proizvođača nafte, Nacional.hr, 27/09/2024
- La tasa de cáncer se dispara en Irak, el país donde más gas queman las petroleras, InfoLibre, 27/09/2024
- Burning Skies: The true toll of Big Oil's gas flaring in Africa and the Middle East, Source Material, 27/09/2024
- Sonatrach, Bp, Eni e le altre di Big Oil: ecco i danni del gas flaring sulla popolazione, Domani, 27/09/2024
- Ein Klimakiller namens Flaring, Der Spiegel, 27/09/2024
- Des géants pétroliers européens dissimulent leurs émissions de CO2, Mediapart, 27/09/2024
- Torchage du gaz : comment TotalEnergies brûle la planète, Mediapart, 27/09/2024
- En Irak, des cancers sous les flammes de TotalEnergies et du chinois CNPC, Mediapart, 27/09/2024
- “إشعال السماء”: ماذا خلف ألسنة اللهب السامة التي تسمح بها شركات النفط العملاقة ؟, Daraj Media, 27/09/2024
- “إشعال السماء”: التناقض البيئي الإماراتي من قيادة قمّة المناخ إلى انتهاك معايير حرق الغاز, Daraj Media, 27/09/2024
- #BurningSkies: Behind Big Oil’s Toxic Flames, Daraj Media, 27/09/2024
- Burning Skies: The Hidden Toll Of Big Oil’s Toxic Flames, EIF, 27/09/2024
- «Viviamo dentro un fuoco infernale»: il grido d’aiuto di chi vive vicino alle fiamme di Eni, Domani, 28/09/2024
- Au Nigeria, voyage dans le « feu de l’enfer » provoqué par TotalEnergies et Eni, Mediapart, 29/09/2024
- Kako je talijanski ENI spalio na baklji više od 20 milijardi kubika plina putem ‘neprofitnog subjekta’ na samo jednom polju u Iraku, 29/09/2024, Nacional
- Repsol y Cepsa queman en Argelia tanto gas como consume Bizkaia en un año, InfoLibre, 29/09/2024
- Potential impacts of gas flaring in Soyo, Angola, Oxpeckers, 29/09/2024
- Piogge acide e problemi respiratori: gli effetti del gas flaring di Eni e Total in Congo, Domani, 30/09/2024
- Un rapport interne prouve les ravages de TotalEnergies au Congo-Brazzaville, Mediapart, 30/09/2024
- Pollution : les chiffres noirs du pétrolier français Perenco, Mediapart, 01/10/2024
- Investigação: como os maiores produtores europeus de petróleo e gás queimam metano em quantidades astronómicas em África e no Médio Oriente, Expresso, 02/10/2024
FURTHER REPUBLISHED
- Republic of Congo: TotalEnergies oil terminal suspected of serious pollution, Climate Whistle Blowers, 30/09/2024
COUNTRIES
- Algeria
- Angola
- Cameroon
- Chad
- Congo
- Croatia
- Egypt
- Equatorial Guinea
- France
- Gabon
- Germany
- Ghana
- Iraq
- Ivory Coast
- Italy
- Mozambique
- Netherlands
- Nigeria
- Oman
- Qatar
- South Africa
- Spain
- Tunisia
- UK
- United Arab Emirates
need resources for your own investigative story?
Journalismfund Europe's flexible grants programmes enable journalists to produce relevant public interest stories with a European mind-set from international, national, and regional perspectives.
support independent cross-border investigative journalism
We rely on your support to continue the work that we do. Make a gift of any amount today.