The glaring problem with ‘carbon neutral’ LNG
The LNG industry is rushing to offset emissions before tackling its own gas flaring problem. Now is the time for action, not greenwashing, says Capterio
The liquefied natural gas industry says it is helping to reduce emissions by replacing dirty coal with cleaner-burning gas in Asia and other markets. LNG is credited with providing a route to market for stranded gas that might otherwise be flared or vented. But the opposite is often true, according to flare capture specialist Capterio, which warns that the industry’s rush to offset its carbon emissions without first snuffing out the flaring problem is raising legitimate concerns of ‘greenwashing’.
If you’re in the business of liquefying natural gas for export to overseas markets, burning off your product at flare stacks would seem illogical. But that’s exactly what many liquefaction plants and regasification terminals are doing, according to Capterio.
As reported in Energy Flux, enormous volumes of natural gas are routinely flared off at upstream oil wells that lack gas gathering infrastructure to get the molecules to market. But once the gas is in the pipeline system and on i…
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