Image: Ken Doerr, Creative Commons BY

Reducing black carbon and methane emissions in the oil and gas sector

Ulrik Westman, ACAP Chair

Presentation objectives

• Flaring of Associated Petroleum Gases (APG) – why do it and what is the impact

• Review related work • Briefly introduce a project under

development in ACAP to mitigate BCM emission from the oil and gas sector in Russia

Image: Garrett Matteson, Creative Commons BY-NC-SA

Where do BCM emissions come from in the oil and gas sector?

Annually, 140bn cubic meters of natural gas are flared globally

Equals annual emissions from 77mn cars

Why flare?

• Difficulty in using locally

• Getting gas to market is uneconomic

• Unfavorable market conditions

• Flared as a non-priority, even if economic use is possible

Image: Inga Vitola, Creative Commons BY

Image: Inga Vitola, Creative Commons BY

What is the situation in the Arctic?

Image: Inga Vitola, Creative Commons BY

Case study: Russia

• Flares largest amount of APG globally

• Flaring may be largest source of black carbon emissions in the Russian Arctic

• November 2012 new Decree reducing flaring of APG

• Main areas for flaring are Komi/Nenets and Yamal-Nenets

How can gas flaring be reduced?

• Re-injection at the site

• Processing AGP using gas-to-liquids technologies

• Optimizing flare design to reduce black carbon emissions

• Extracting and exporting heavy components before flaring

Image: Garrett Matteson, Creative Commons BY-NC-SA

Image: Inga Vitola, Creative Commons BY

Links to the work of the Arctic Council (and others)

• World Bank Global Gas Flaring Reduction Partnership

• Climate and Clean Air Coalition Technology Demonstration and Evaluation for the Recovery of Hydrocarbon Liquids

• Arctic Council Expert Group on Black Carbon and Methane

Image: Ken Doerr, Creative Commons BY

ACAP Project

Mitigation of black carbon and methane emissions from the oil and gas sector in the Russian Arctic

Image: Ken Doerr, Creative Commons BY

1. Mitigating emissions from flaring sites

• Through flare elimination by utilizing the flared gas

• By removing liquid components from the flare gas stream

• Through improvement of the flare system

Image: Ken Doerr, Creative Commons BY

2. Mitigating Mitigating methane emissions from the oil and gas sector

• Sub-project engaging companies in leak detection and repair (LDAR)

• Demonstrate and contribute to mainstreaming of LDAR

Image: Ken Doerr, Creative Commons BY

3. Mitigating Identification and sharing of best practices to reduce black carbon and methane emissions between Arctic States

• Capturing circumpolar synergies

• Reviewing best practices to support selection of mitigation activities

• Recommendations on effective ways to share lessons-learned

Image: Ken Doerr, Creative Commons BY

Thank you!