# Measuring Gas Flaring in Russia with Multispectral VIIRS Nightfire
## 3 Results
### Flaring Estimates in Russia by Major Regions and Companies
#### 3.2.2 Company-Level Estimates  
While the counting of operating parent companies is complicated due to transfers and joint ventures, 291 subsidiaries have been estimated to operate gas flaring in Russia in this study. Figure 5: Upstream gas flaring volumes in major (in BCM; regions with >1 mean annual BCM) flaring regions of Russia. Solid and shaded areas represent flaring at oil and natural gas/gas condensate upstream facilities, respectively. The histogram in Figure 6 presents gas flaring volumes among major producers in Russia, with the highest flaring rates (shares in joint ventures and company ownership transfers are accounted for as presented in list 2 ('List of Joint Ventures') of the gas flaring catalog MS Excel table available in the Supplementary Materials section). Table S3 in the Supplementary Materials text section specifies mean reported and Nightfire-estimated gas flaring volumes, as well as reported oil and APG production for the major oil companies at the national level in the 2018-2020 period. Rosneft, the largest oil producer in Russia, is also the major flaring company averaging at c. 38% on national level in both APG production and flaring volumes (Nightfire est.). During the observation period, Rosneft acquired several major assets such as TNK-BP in 2013 (annual oil production c. 72 mln tons) and Bashneft in 2016 (annual oil production c. 20 mln tons), while rearranging its share in several joint ventures. The largest flaring assets of Rosneft, including joint ventures, correspond to remote gas flaring facilities, as well as several major oil fields in Khanty-Mansi Okrug. Rosneft also reported a significant drop in overall APG utilization rates (from 89% in 2017 to 78% in 2019) due to flaring at greenfields [47]. Gazprom Neft, comprising approximately 14% of the national gas flaring volume, follows the pattern of Rosneft, with major flaring occurring at remote fields. Both companies do not have a clear trend of declining flaring volumes, as their total flaring rates are significantly influenced by the commissioning of new greenfields offset by an increase in APG utilization at greenfields commissioned several years ago. The second largest oil producer in Russia, Lukoil, has a limited presence in remote regions; instead, most flaring occurs in developed regions, such as Khanty-Mansi AO or the Komi Republic. A trend of declining flaring volumes is observed for the company, although it was disrupted in 2016, as discussed in Section 4.1. Among the major oil and gas companies in Russia, the third and fifth largest oil producers, Surgutneftegas and Tatneft, according to the Nightfire estimates, have reached the goal of 95% APG utilization. Both companies primarily operate in developed oil regions  
Figure 6: Upstream gas flaring volumes (in BCM) per major oil and gas companies (including their share in joint ventures) with the highest flaring rates in Russia. Solid and shaded areas represent flaring at oil and natural gas/gas condensate upstream facilities, respectively. 1 SAFMAR is a financial group controlling several oil companies (major Russseft) founded in 2015. On the diagram, all later associated assets are retrospectively accounted for as a single entity in 2012-2014. 2 Rosenft acquired major oil companies TNK-BP in 2013 and Bashneft in 2016. Here, their flaring volumes are accounted for starting from the year of acquisition (2013 and 2016, respectively). with sufficient APG utilization infrastructure and have been reporting their APG utilization rates reaching 95% since 2008 [48]. For the major natural gas producers (Gazprom and Novatek), relatively high flaring volumes are observed at major natural gas and gas condensate fields of Yamal-Nenets Okrug; significant flaring is also observed at Rosneft gas condensate fields operated by its subsidiary Rospan International. Natural gas and gas condensate require primary processing prior to transportation, which may result in flaring in remote regions where no options to market the residuals of the processing are available.