Behind Big Oil’s toxic flames
Western European oil majors, including BP, ENI, TotalEnergies and Shell, rank among the 10 largest polluters in Africa and the Middle East when it comes to gas flaring. This investigation reveals for the first time the individual responsibilities of big oil companies behind this disruptive practice. Using satellite and geo-data as well as open source research, we linked thousands of flaring signals to over 650 oil and gaz infrastructures, in 18 countries of Africa and the Middle East. We managed to estimate emissions from 2012 to 2022, and attribute them to the operating companies, for each oil field, LNG plant or refinery. We can attribute to flaring an estimated volume of 1,37 billion tons of CO2e emitted during this decade. The project was developed by EIF, a global consortium of environmental investigative journalists, in partnership with the European Investigative Collaborations network, and their partners Daraj, Source Material and Oxpeckers. [Published 27.09.2024]
Participants
Reporting
Yann Philippin (Mediapart), Alexandre Brutelle and Leopold Salzenstein (EIForum), Micael Pereira (Expresso), Stefano Vergine (Domani), Begona Ramirez (infoLibre), Blaz Zgaga and Saša Leković (Nacional), Natalia M. (EIC), Gil Durand and Jean-François Munster (Le Soir), Hanneke Chin-A-Fo, Rik Wassens, Femke van Zeijl (NRC), Susanne Götze, Jule Ahles and Anna-lena Kornfeld (Der Spiegel), Alia Ibrahim, Hala Nasreddine, Hazem El-Amin, Alyaa Yahya, Nourhanne Charaf Eddine, Hanene Zbiss and Mais Katt (Daraj), Ilyas Hallas (Twala), Dlovan Barwari (NIRIJ), Diaa Al-Bazouni (Al-Mirbad), Marcus Leroux, Costanza Gambarini and Leigh Baldwin (Source Material), Andiswa Matikinca, Neusa e Silva and Fiona Macleod (Oxpeckers), Elodie Toto (Mongobay).
Data, Information Design and Illustration
Alexandre Brutelle and Leopold Salzenstein (Environmental Investigative Forum), Rik Wassens (NRC), Justine Vernier and Simon Toupet (Mediapart), NIRIJ, al-Mirbad, Hanene Zbiss (Daraj), Lyas Hallas (Twala)
Project Design & Guide
Stefan Candea
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