Azerbaijan's SOCAR to solve associated gas emission issue in 2015
By Gulgiz Dadashova
Azerbaijan's state energy company SOCAR plans to eliminate the emissions of low pressure associated gas into the atmosphere in 2015.
Earlier, the company was wasting billions of cubic meters of natural gas, because a lot of gas escapes when oil is extracted from under the ground, and since capturing it failed, the company had to either release or burn it.
The main sources of gas emissions in Azerbaijan are oil and gas wells at the fields 28 May, Mud Volcano, Oil Rocks, Bibiheybat, Guneshli and Siyazan, as well as tanks and separators.
One of the ways to reduce emission of gases into the atmosphere is their flaring, supply to the population, use of these gases at power plants in the Oil Rocks and application of nanotechnology.
A SOCAR source told Trend news agency that the work on eliminating associated gas emissions has been completed in the shallow part of the Guneshli field, which is part of Azerbaijan's major Azeri-Chirag-Gunashli (ACG) block of fields in the Caspian Sea, and the offshore Oil Rocks deposit.
Currently, gas is completely collected at these fields and then delivered to the population. This project is exemplary in world practice, the source said.
Referring to the reduction of associated gas emissions in other onshore and offshore fields run by SOCAR, the source noted that on environmental issues the company adheres to the principle of zero emissions.
"Currently, the total amount of associated gas emissions is 1.5 percent, and we intend to bring this figure down to zero," he said.
This emission rate is small and mostly comes from onshore fields.
Small amounts of emissions complicate the process of capturing; in addition, the process is quite costly.
"According to our plans, we will reach a zero figure in the volume of associated gas emissions into the atmosphere both at onshore and offshore fields in 2015. This is difficult, but we will achieve this target," the source said.
In February, SOCAR and the World Bank signed an agreement on the fourth phase of cooperation between the company and the Global Gas Flaring Reduction (GGFR) -- a group of oil producing countries and leading oil companies working together to overcome barriers standing in the way of reducing natural gas waste.
GGFR has supported Azerbaijan in reducing gas flaring emissions by half since 2008, avoiding the waste of natural gas and significantly improving the environmental performance of its oil producing activities. GGFR specialists helped SOCAR to shape the company's policy on recovering the associated petroleum gas.
The new concept on associated gas recovery, which identifies the fields where gas flaring occurs, and determines how much gas is flared or vented, along with technical options for utilization, investment needs and timelines, has been developed for Azerbaijan.
As a result, SOCAR managed to collect and deliver more than 500 million cubic meters of gas to consumers by preventing the release of 8 million cubic meters of carbon dioxide.
When fully implemented, Azerbaijan's new associated gas recovery plan will put 1.6 billion cubic meters of natural gas to productive use in five years. This will boost Azerbaijan's economy and development, and ensure a cleaner environment.