Exxon to Slash Gas Flaring 25% by 2020 in Emissions Push
- Supermajor oil explorer sets out ambitious, two-year goal
- Investors are pushing Big Oil to reduce enviromental impact
Photographer: Akio Kon/Bloomberg
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Exxon Mobil Corp. plans to reduce the amount of natural gas it burns as waste by a quarter within two years to reduce climate-changing emissions, something long demanded by environmental groups and activist investors.
Efforts will be focused on oil wells off the coast of West Africa, Exxon said in a statement on Wednesday. In that region and others, gas produced alongside crude is routinely burned because there’s no way to haul it to markets. The practice, known as flaring, has been assailed as wasteful and environmentally harmful on every continent where oil is produced.