Executive Decree 21-330,2021

Executive Decree 21-330 of 2021 sets out the conditions for granting exceptional authorizations for gas flaring. Requests for exceptional gas flaring shall be submitted by operators or contracting parties to National Agency for the Development of Hydrocarbon Resources (ALNAFT) and Hydrocarbons Regulatory Authority (ARH) beforehand. Flaring operations imperatively required for safety reasons are not subject to a request for prior authorization for gas flaring. 

The annual allowable gas flaring threshold, under normal operating conditions, is set at a rate equal to one percent (1%). In cases where ALNAFT judges, on the basis of a report of circumstances, that infrastructure allowing gas recovery and/or transport are non-existent or limited, gas flaring may be authorised for up to twelve 12 months. During normal operations, gas flaring must be reduced to the volume necessary for keeping the torches lit as well as maintaining gas flare manifolds under pressure. After each year-end, a detailed annual report must be sent to ALNAFT by January 31 of the following year detailing the quantities of gas flared. The national company and contracting parties are required to include in the “gas material” balance, all the quantities of gas flared, regardless of the cause that led to the gas flaring.

Furthermore, the decree also requires that annual declaration to the fiscal authority on flare taxes must include all information necessary for calculation of the tax. ALNAFT and ARH will transmit to the tax administration a detailed annual report on all gas flaring operations, including for each gas flaring operation: 

• The nature of the gas flaring operation (e.g. well test, commissioning);
• Authorized volumes and timelines;
• The volumes actually flared;
• The start and end dates of the flaring operations.

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