Alberta is putting a permanent cap on flaring at oil and gas fields across the province – with the blessings of the energy industry.
A new draft policy by the Energy and Utilities Board (EUB) sets the cap at 670 million cubic metres a year of solution gas, or uneconomical natural gas, that is allowed to be flared.
That’s a reduction by half of what Alberta’s total flaring emissions were in 1996.
The EUB says it will impose a regulated limit for individual oil and gas facilities if the provincewide cap is exceeded.
Complaints in Alberta, especially from rural landowners, about the potential health and environmental effects of flaring have continued for more than 30 years.
Wiebo Ludwig, a Peace River-area farmer who spent almost 19 months in jail for vandalizing oilfield facilities, blamed flaring emissions for harming his family, animals and land at his Trickle Creek farm in northwestern Alberta.
The new EUB policy also sets a limit on the amount of flaring and venting (release of unburned gas) from Alberta’s natural gas-processing plants. Large plants must have no more than six major flaring events every six months.
The policy also toughens regulations on flaring done to test new gas wells. The EUB is asking companies to phase out flare pits used for routine gas flaring.
“We don’t see there should be a problem” with the new policy, says John Squarek, manager of Alberta operations for the Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers (CAPP).
“These were negotiated agreements between industry, the government and the environmentalists,” he says. All three stakeholders are represented on the Clean Air Strategic Alliance (CASA), which led the push for the permanent flaring cap and the new regulations.
Members of the CASA flaring-venting team say the ultimate goal is to eliminate flaring in the province, except in cases of emergency, plant-operating upsets or gas-well testing where short-term flaring is the only option. “That is the desired end-point,” Squarek says.
Rocky Mountain House veterinarian Martha Kostuch, who represents the environmental community on the CASA team, says the permanent cap ensures that flaring reductions already made won’t be reversed.
“It’s great, but it’s just a beginning,” she says. “I think we need to be looking at further, substantive reductions.”
CASA’s team co-ordinated a drive by industry to reduce solution gas flaring by 53 per cent at the end of 2001, compared with the 1996 “baseline” flaring levels.
Figures for 2002 are expected to show the provincewide reduction has gone beyond 53 per cent.
For years, industry routinely disposed of solution gas, which is produced from wells along with saleable natural gas, by flaring or burning the gas. But more companies are capturing and using the solution gas.
New technologies, higher prices for natural gas and continuing public concern about flaring have contributed to companies’ flaring as little as possible, Squarek says.
“We saw a lot of companies that, once the problem was brought to light, put more time into (resolving) it than they may have otherwise.”
Kostuch says some farmers and ranchers have noticed the difference. “Those who’ve had the flares near their houses eliminated or reduced have certainly recognized the improvements in air quality.”
By the end of last month, oil and gas companies had to evaluate every flare in the province to see if solution gas could be economically captured and used. The EUB’s new policy requires projects that are economic to be implemented within six months.
CASA’s team is scheduled to meet again in February, to consider whether there’s a need to set new targets for flaring and venting reduction.
The team will also look at ways to help companies capture and use small amounts of gas in cases where it’s uneconomical, possibly through a cost-sharing agreement with government or a royalty tax incentive.
