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Compositions and Greenhouse Gas Emission Factors of Flared and Vented Gas in the Western Canadian Sedimentary Basin

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Compositions and Greenhouse Gas Emission Factors of Flared and Vented Gas in the Western Canadian Sedimentary Basin Compositions and Greenhouse Gas Emission Factors of Flared and Vented Gas in the Western Canadian Sedimentary Basin Matthew R. Johnson* and Adam R. Coderre Energy & Emissions Research Laboratory, Mechanical & Aerospace Engineering, Carleton University, Ottawa, ON, Canada, K1S 5B6 This is an authors’ preprint of an article whose definitive form has been published in the Journal of the Air & Waste Management Association © 2012 Taylor & Francis (doi: 10.1080/10962247.2012.676954) The article should be cited as: M.R. Johnson and A.R. Coderre (2012) Compositions and Greenhouse Gas Emission Factors of Flared and Vented Gas in the Western Canadian Sedimentary Basin, Journal of the Air & Waste Management Association, 62(9):992-1002 (doi: 10.1080/10962247.2012.676954). * Corresponding author: Email: [email protected]; Office: (613) 520 2600 ext. 4039; Fax: (613) 520 5715 ABSTRACT A significant obstacle in evaluating mitigation strategies for flaring and venting in the upstream oil and gas industry is the lack of publicly available data on the chemical composition of the gas. This information is required to determine the economic value of the gas, infrastructure and processing requirements, and potential emissions or emissions credits, all of which have significant impact on the economics of such strategies. This paper describes a method for estimating the composition of solution gas being flared and vented at individual facilities, and presents results derived for Alberta, Canada, which sits at the heart of the Western Canadian Sedimentary Basin. Using large amounts of raw data obtained through the Alberta Energy Resources Conservation Board, a relational database was created and specialized queries were developed to link production stream data, raw gas samples, and geography to create production-linked gas composition profiles for approximately half of the currently active facilities. These were used to create composition maps for the entire region, to which the remaining facilities with unknown compositions were geographically linked. The derived data were used to compute a range of solution gas composition profiles and greenhouse gas emission factors, providing new insight into flaring and venting in the region and enabling informed analysis of future management and mitigation strategies. IMPLICATIONS Accurate and transparent determination of environmental impacts of flaring and venting of gas associated with oil production, and potential benefits of mitigation, are severely hampered by the lack of publically available gas composition data. In jurisdictions within the Western Canadian Sedimentary Basin, frameworks exist for regulating and trading carbon offset credits but current potential for mitigation is limited by a lack of standardized methods for calculating CO2 equivalent emissions. The composition and emission factor data derived in this paper will be useful to industry, regulators, policy researchers, and entrepreneurs seeking statistically significant and openly available data necessary to manage and mitigate upstream flaring and venting activity and estimate greenhouse gas impacts. 1 When these liquids are produced and brought to INTRODUCTION the surface, the pressure acting on them is In the energy and petrochemical industries, reduced from formation to atmospheric, causing excess or unwanted flammable gases are often these dissolved gases to come out of solution. disposed of by flaring or venting. Flaring is the These evolved gases are commonly referred to process of combusting the gases in an open- as solution gas. The term associated gas, is atmosphere flame, and provides a means of perhaps even more commonly used, although in disposing of flammable gases in a cost-effective general associated gas is understood to refer to manner. If stable combustion of surplus gas is the combination of solution gas and gas that not possible, for instance if the flow rates are too exists separate from the oil at reservoir low or too intermittent, or if the heating value of conditions. In the upstream oil and gas industry, the gas is too low to sustain combustion, or if the solution gas is the source for the majority of all gases are deemed uneconomic to recover and flaring and venting activity that takes place. regulations permit, the gases are instead vented, From an air emissions management perspective, meaning they are simply released to atmosphere. the practice of flaring and venting is a concern The U.S. Energy Information Administration, due to the scale at which it takes place. In based on reports from individual countries, addition to carbon dioxide (CO2), an important estimates that global flaring and venting totalled greenhouse gas, flares can produce airborne 122 billion m3 in 20081. By contrast, pollutants such as particulate matter in the form examination of visible light images captured by of soot 4,5, unburned fuel and carbon monoxide orbiting satellite suggests that global flaring 6,7 (especially if the heating value of the flare gas alone exceeds 139 billion m3 annually, and that is low 8), and potentially other by-products of these volumes have been relatively stable over incomplete combustion 9. When the raw flare 2 the past fifteen years . Vented gas is not as gas contains hydrogen sulphide (H2S), the major readily detected and to the authors’ knowledge, pollutant sulphur dioxide (SO2) is also produced. accurate estimates of global venting volumes do Although direct venting of gas precludes not exist. However, for the case of Alberta, combustion related emissions, from a Canada, a mature oil and gas producing region greenhouse gas (GHG) perspective, venting of with extensive pipeline infrastructure, a recent high-methane content gas associated with analysis of production data shows venting petroleum production is even worse. This is volumes similar to flared volumes as well as a because methane (CH4) has a 100-year global trend toward proportionally greater amounts of warming potential that on a mass basis is 3 10 venting as more heavier oils are produced . twenty-five times more potent than CO2 . The majority of global flaring and venting Predicting impacts of flaring and venting on a occurs during upstream production of oil and gas broader scale requires knowledge of gas resources. The production of conventional oil is compositions being flared and vented. As well, nearly always accompanied by the production of the viability of any potential mitigation flammable gases, even when no gas is initially strategies such as collection of gas into pipelines present in the reservoir. This is because the or the use of the gas to generate heat and hydrocarbons are contained in sub-surface electricity, are highly dependent on chemical geological formations under high pressure, composition of the gas, especially in terms of which allows for volatile chemical species to energy and H2S content. The lack of statistically equilibrate and dissolve in the formation liquids. significant, published data on compositions of 2 flared and vented associated gas is thus a production and 76% of gross natural gas significant impediment to engineering analysis production 15. of impacts and mitigation options. Successful Upstream Flaring and Venting in Alberta, regulation and trading of carbon offset credits Canada. Much of the conventional oil in from flaring and venting mitigation projects are Alberta is produced from smaller-volume wells further hampered by a lack of consistently connected to “battery” sites, i.e. surface facilities applied and transparently derived greenhouse in which reservoir fluids, including solution gas, gas (GHG) emission factors. The objective of are separated and measured. Oil and bitumen this paper is to address this gap in knowledge batteries in Alberta produced nearly 15 billion through comprehensive analysis of available m3 of solution gas in 2008 16, the latest year for production and reservoir data for a significant which data were available. The large majority petroleum production region of the world. The (95.3%) was conserved, meaning that it was derived results are subsequently used to estimate either used onsite as fuel or directed into natural a range of gas composition-based emission gas pipelines for processing and sale. The factors to predict greenhouse gas emissions from remainder was disposed of by flaring or venting. flaring and venting activities. Although 4.7% is a relatively small fraction of the total amount of solution gas produced, it still Petroleum Production in the Western represents a significant volume of gas which Canadian Sedimentary Basin totalled 687 million m3 in 2008 3. Upstream The Western Canadian Sedimentary Basin flaring and venting from all sources in Alberta (WCSB) is a vast geological formation of 3 16 totalled 1.11 billion m in 2008 , or sedimentary rock that spans several western 3 approximately 0.9% of the 122 billion m global Canadian Provinces, bordered by the Rocky flaring and venting estimate from the U.S. Mountains to the west and the Canadian Shield 1 Energy Information Administration . to the east. The bulk of Canada’s oil and gas resources lie within this basin, including the vast The body that regulates the upstream oil and gas quantities of oil sands that place Canada’s industry in Alberta is the Energy Resources proved oil reserves third highest in the world, Conservation Board (ERCB). ERCB’s Directive behind Saudi Arabia and Venezuela 12. More 60 contains guidelines for the decision-making than 97% of Canada’s proven reserves are in the process pertaining to solution gas conservation form of oil sands deposits, while conventional options that industry operators are required to 17 reserves in the WCSB account for nearly 2% 13. follow . Whereas ERCB Directive 007 However, conventional sources in the WCSB mandates that operators submit monthly account for a much greater fraction of current production reports through the Petroleum 18 production. In 2009, roughly 3% of global oil Registry of Alberta (PRA) , Directive 60 further production was sourced from the WCSB, of specifies that “volumes of gas greater than or 3 3 which approximately half (55%) originated from equal to 0.1·10 m /month (adjusted to 101.325 oil sands deposits 14,12.
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