The Flare Extinguished

The flare on the flare boom is the platform’s safety valve. If the pressure becomes too high, the gas is sent to the flare and burned off.

To avoid having the flare burn continuously, three elements are required:

1. The gas must be prevented from going to the flare.
2. At the same time, the gas must be able to reach the flare in critical situations.
3. The gas must then be able to be ignited.

In November 1994, Statoil employees Thormod Hope and Magne Bjørkhaug had found solutions for all three challenges. The new flare ignition system was then introduced on Gullfaks A, before being introduced on Gullfaks C just under a month later.

Before this system was implemented, a constant flame burned in the flare, causing gas to be burned off without first having been used for energy. This had economic consequences for Statoil and the other license holders, in two ways. First, after 1991, Statoil had to pay a CO₂ tax on all gas burned in the flare boom. Second, this was gas the company could otherwise have sold.

Extinguishing the flare also has a climate perspective, because with many flares burning, large amounts of gas are burned – gas that comes in addition to the gas used for energy.

The final motivation for extinguishing the flare is the reason the whole process began: Thormod Hope’s desire to prevent birds from being burned and killed by the flare. Read the full Story of Extinguished Flames.

For the record, there were technical reasons why the flare on Gullfaks B could not be extinguished at the same time as the others. The flare was not extinguished until around 2024.