COP29 host Azerbaijan failing to report ever-growing methane emissions

Gas flaring in Azerbaijan has surged since the COP29 host last submitted its emissions data to the UN, according to new analysis by Global Witness.

Analysis of satellite imagery data shows that gas flaring at oil and gas installations in Azerbaijan has increased by nearly 11% since 2018  – when the country last reported its greenhouse gas emissions.

Azerbaijan, BP and state oil company SOCAR have made numerous pledges to eliminate gas flaring from their oil and gas production by 2030.     

Billions of cubic metres of fossil gas are flared around the world each year, releasing millions of tonnes of CO2 and methane – the most potent greenhouse gas – which contribute to global heating.  

Flaring occurs when fossil gas produced during oil extraction is burned for a variety of reasons. It’s an immensely wasteful process; the World Bank estimates that the amount of gas flared each year could power the whole of Sub-Saharan Africa.  

Flaring also contributes to poor air quality and has been blamed for increasing ill health close to installations where gas is routinely flared. Residents near BP’s Sangachal terminal, south of Baku, have reported of a raft of symptoms, including breathing and heart problems.

Earlier this year, the family of an Iraqi youth who died of leukaemia started legal action against BP, citing an investigation that found high levels of cancer-linked pollutants close to a facility where they lived. 

Under the 2015 Paris Agreement, countries are required to submit their emissions data every two years. Yet Azerbaijan, which will host the COP29 climate summit in November, has failed to do so since 2018. 

Since then, the amount of gas flared at its oil and gas facilities has increased by 10.5%. Additionally, the rate of gas flaring has increased more than 70%, with more than 1,000 separate flaring events captured by satellites since September 2018.

Several of the facilities where flaring remains high are operated by BP, including the vast Azeri-Chirag-Guneshli (ACG) field in the Caspian Sea and the Sangachal terminal south of Baku.

BP’s ACG installations have flared nearly 1 billion cubic metres of gas since 2019, according to Global Witness analysis of satellite data compiled by the Earth Observation Group at Colorado School of Mines. Flaring at ACG installations last year nearly equalled the field’s 2014 record. 

That’s despite oil production being 46% lower in 2023 than a decade ago, according to Global Witness analysis of Rystad Energy data. 

In the first half of 2024 alone, Sangachal terminal has already flared nearly 40 mcm of gas, putting it comfortably on course for its highest annual flare rate ever.

The Sangachal flaring uptick appears to have coincided with BP bringing its “most technologically advanced” platform to date – the £5 billion ACE installation – online in April 2024. Sangachal flared more gas in April 2024 than any month since flaring data collection began in 2013. 

BP, SOCAR and Azerbaijan are all signatories to the World Bank’s Zero Routine Flaring Initiative, which pledges to eliminate routine gas flaring by 2030. Both oil companies signed up to 2021’s Global Methane Pledge, which aims to reduce methane emissions by 30% this decade.   

Patrick Galey, Senior Fossil Fuels Investigator at Global Witness, said: “BP and SOCAR have promised to eliminate gas flaring by 2030, but flaring at their facilities is actually increasing. 

“This has gone largely unnoticed, because Azerbaijan – which is tasked with leading global climate diplomacy this year – hasn’t bothered to report its emissions in six years. How is it supposed to secure commitments from other countries when it can’t even do the bare minimum? 

"This easily avoidable flaring is spewing dangerous gases into the atmosphere, risking contamination of the air that Azeri citizens breathe, and making a mockery of BP, SOCAR and Azerbaijan’s promises.

“They seem to be treating the Paris Agreement with total contempt. Voluntary pledges aren’t worth the paper they’re written on.”

A spokesperson for BP said: “BP reports each year total hydrocarbons flared from our upstream operations globally. Over the past decade (2013-2023), the amount flared fell by almost 60%, and by almost 40% from 2019 to 2023. 

“BP remains on track to achieve zero routine flaring by 2030, in line with both the World Bank’s Zero Routine Flaring Initiative and the Oil and Gas Decarbonization Charter, to which we are signatories. 

"The amount flared, both overall and at any given asset, can vary from year to year. At a particular asset, this can be due to factors such as a significant maintenance programme or an unexpected outage. 

“BP businesses have been operating in the Caspian Sea region for more than thirty years. They currently hold interests in, and operate to applicable regulations, a number of assets – including the ACG field and Sangachal terminal. 

"The operator of the Sangachal terminal monitors air quality around the terminal on a quarterly basis. Despite the highly industrialised nature of the area, over the period you reference (from 2019), this monitoring has not identified any exceedances of applicable air quality environmental standards.

“BP is committed to respecting and working with communities where we operate. At Sangachal there are long-standing community engagement programmes, including procedures to maintain dialogue and enable community concerns to be raised and responded to. 

"Over the past five years, air quality or health-related concerns have not been raised through the channels made available to community members.”

SOCAR and the Azeri foreign ministry declined to comment on this investigation.