Alberta’s petroleum industry is cutting polluting emissions from aging sour-gas processing plants and oilfield flares faster than expected.
New provincial regulations introduced last year governing about 60 old sour-gas plants that had been “grandfathered,” or exempted from having to reduce their sulphur emissions under tighter rules introduced in 1988, are already showing results.
Rod Sikora, environment manager for KeySpan Energy Canada, says these plants have cut their collective emissions by about one-third of the amount that’s expected by 2016.
That means the plants are emitting about 21 fewer tonnes of sulphur into Alberta’s air each day compared with a couple of years ago, he told a meeting of Canadian gas processors and suppliers last week.
“More will be and must be done by industry,” he added.
Environmentalists are applauding the progress.
“It’s certainly positive, there’s no question about it,” said Martha Kostuch, a Rocky Mountain House veterinarian who has been an outspoken critic of the sour-gas industry.
Companies that have upgraded their plants to the stricter emission standards include Conoco Canada Resources, Husky Energy, Petro-Canada and Keyspan.
The bottom line for Albertans living near the operations is being able to breathe cleaner air, adds Kostuch, a member of a multi-stakeholder group that drove the effort.
Some landowners – including convicted Peace River area oilfield saboteur Wiebo Ludwig – blame sour-gas emissions for problems that range from flu-like symptoms to miscarriages in pregnant women and abortions in livestock. The industry says there is no scientific proof of the linkage.
Sikora told last week’s joint meeting in Calgary of the Canadian Gas Processors Association and the Canadian Gas Processing Suppliers Association that KeySpan spent about $20 million, some on new equipment, to recover more sulphur at its gas plant near Rimbey.
The plant has reduced emissions by about 75 per cent, he said. It now captures 98.3 per cent of the sulphur before emissions go out the stack, compared with about 92 per cent prior to the upgrade.
Petro-Canada spent about $7.5 million to install new sulphur-recovery equipment at its Wilson Creek gas plant, which is also in the Rimbey area. The plant is now recovering slightly more than 90 per cent of its sulphur, compared with none previously, said Petro-Canada spokesman Chris Dawson.
Conoco spent $85,000 US to modify processing operations and existing equipment at its Peco gas plant near Edson, about 200 kilometres west of Edmonton.
The plant nearly eliminated all emissions, Conoco spokeswoman Maureen Herchak said.
The new rules require all 60 grandfathered plants to either be upgraded to current emission standards or be shut down by the end of 2016.
On the flaring side, Alberta Energy and Utilities Board (EUB) senior engineer Kim Eastlick said preliminary data to the end of 2001 show the industry has reduced, by more than 50 per cent, the 1.3 billion cubic metres of solution gas flared in 1996.
Solution gas is typically flared at hundreds of oilfield “batteries” – small facilities that separate liquids mixed with the raw natural gas being pumped from the ground. This type of flaring can be highly visible and frequently triggers public complaints.
The 50-per-cent cut in solution gas flaring is double the 25-per-cent reduction target by the end of 2001, which was set by the Clean Air Strategic Alliance (CASA), said Eastlick, co-chair of CASA’s flaring-reduction project team.
CASA is a multi-stakeholder partnership focused on improving Alberta air quality. Its members include industry, government, the EUB and environmental groups.
Environmentalist Kostuch, who represents the Prairie Acid Rain Coalition on CASA’s flaring-reduction team, said: “There’s no question that the 50-per-cent reduction is certainly good news.”
However, the industry’s venting of unburned solution gas (as opposed to flared gas, which is set afire upon release) has been increasing and it also must be significantly reduced, Kostuch added.
A CASA team plans to make recommendations in June to provincial regulators.
The volume of venting reported in Alberta jumped to 704 million cubic metres in 2000 from 459 million cubic metres in 1999, according to EUB figures.
About 40 per cent of the increase came from improved emissions reporting by industry, but the rest was an actual increase in the release of unburned gas – mostly from new oilsands projects.
Eastlick said the EUB would like to see the industry start reducing large individual sources of venting – over 800 cubic metres a day – by the end of this year.
The CASA team also plans to make recommendations in June on what further reductions should be made in solution gas flaring, as well as from flaring done during gas well testing and periodic gas plant flaring.
The EUB wants the annual allowable limits for flaring at larger gas plants to be reduced, Eastlick said. Even though the industry “has made excellent progress” in reducing flaring, “the (public’s) concern remains high on flares,” he said.
