Best Practice in Flare Gas Measurement

Abstract

1 INTRODUCTION This paper focuses on the measurement of carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions fromgas flaring activities in the oil and gas industry. This includes theregulatory requirements for monitoring and reporting flare gas emissions, thechallenges faced by industry in implementing accurate measurement schemes, andcurrent technologies and best practice used by oil and gas operators. 1.1 Background Greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions like carbon dioxide (CO2) have risensignificantly over the past hundred years and they are thought to be theprimary cause of global warming. In order to combat their effect, manygovernments have agreed to reduce the amount of GHGs they release into theatmosphere through different conventions and policies, some legallybinding. One of the first was the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change(UNFCCC). The UNFCCC is an international treaty set up at the ‘Earth Summit’held in Rio de Janeiro in 1992. The objective of this treaty is to keep the GHGemissions at a stable level that would not cause any permanent affects to theatmosphere or climate. At present, 194 countries (May 2011) have signed up forthis treaty although it has no real deliverables; only the convention for eachmember country to reduce its GHG emissions. The Kyoto Protocol extended this premise by holding member countriesresponsible for their GHG reductions. The protocol came into effect on 2005 andhas the aim of reducing the levels of GHG emission by 5.2% compared to the 1990level. In total 37 countries signed up to this legally binding agreement toreduce emissions. The majority of these 37 countries were from the developedworld as they have been responsible for the majority of emissions to date. However the number of countries signing up to the Kyoto Protocol has increasedsignificantly since then and currently sits at 191 (April 2010). A number of mechanisms were set-up under the Kyoto Protocol to provide acost-effective path for reducing GHG emissions. These include EmissionsTrading, Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) and the Joint Implementation (JI). The EU Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS) is to date the largest carbon-tradingscheme in existence. Whether it is for emissions trading or emissions reduction projects as set outunder the CDM or JI, accurate measurement is essential to substantiate reportedemissions levels. To ensure transparency and consistency, monitoring andreporting guidelines have been established to support the Kyoto Protocol's CDMand JI flare reduction schemes. In addition, the EU has developed its owndomestic monitoring and reporting guidelines under the EU ETS. The EU ETS was set up to help member countries meet their Kyoto Protocolemission reduction targets. The EU has a legal obligation to cut greenhouse gasemissions in Europe by 20% by 2020, compared to 1990 levels. Now in its secondphase, the scheme covers around 11,000 energy intensive installations acrossEurope.