(Ecofin Agency) - On Monday, August 20, 2018, Algeria’s public Hydrocarbon Company Sonatrach announced that it has joined the “Zero Routine Flaring by 2030” initiative launched by World Bank in 2015 to reduce systematic gas flaring by 2030.

Sonatrach is, therefore, joining 35 oil and gas companies such as the Tunisian, Egyptian and Moroccan national oil companies, 27 governments (California included) and 15 institutions.

World Bank explained that it is happy to welcome such an important producer within the initiative given the fact that Sonatrach has been “working to identify and implement solutions to reduce gas flaring since 1976”. The institution also praised Algeria’s approval of the request to join the “Zero Routine Flaring by 2030” initiative, a fact which indicates a strong political will in that regard.

 In 2017, 140.6 billion metric cubes of gas was flared around the world ; 7.1 billion less than the volume flared in 2016, the initiative indicated last month according to a report by Natural Gas World. In addition, in 2017, Algeria was the fifth largest gas flarer in the world, behind Russia, Irak, Iran, and the United States.

Olivier de Souza