Assessment of CO2 Emission and Reduction Technologies in Offshore Oil and Gas Fields

Abstract

Abstract The offshore oil and gas industry is an energy-intensive process that contributes to one of the prominent carbon dioxide (CO2) emission sectors in Malaysia. The CO2 is obtained from the hydrocarbon (HC) flaring, HC venting, fuel gas and diesel combustion and CO2 venting. The pressing need to achieve net zero carbon emissions by 2050 goal, has encouraged the implementation of more energy-efficient and CO2 emission reduction solutions, of which four are assessed in this paper: (i) implementation of surge gas recovery, (ii) application of flare gas recovery, (iii) conversion of vent to flare, (iv) re-injection of CO2 for enhanced oil recovery. This paper provides a comprehensive assessment to evaluate the ongoing initiatives to reduce CO2 emissions from offshore oil and gas fields and address the pain points that need to be solved to ensure that the net zero carbon emission can be achieved in 2050. Data from 18 offshore fields in South China Sea is taken as the case study. This study started with the analysis of the overall CO2 emissions trend and narrowed it down to each type of emission and field to analyse the impact of the technologies implemented while modelling the efficacy of the solutions. Finally, the developed model was used to predict the possibility of the current approach to achieving the desired goal of net zero carbon emissions by 2050. Overall CO2 emission analysis highlighted that fuel combustion contributes the most with an average of 1.3 MMtCO2e per year which takes up 53% of the total emission followed by HC flaring and HC venting that takes up the remaining 24% and 23%, respectively. The results indicate the benefits of all the implemented technologies. The surge and flare gas recovery projects have started to reduce the emissions significantly since 2020 and will prohibit any CO2 release from flaring and venting in 2025 once the project is fully completed. Moreover, the vent to flare conversion technology gives a positive impact to the total flaring with a drastic reduction from 2024 onward where there will be only 6 fields that will continue to flare beyond 2035 but with low emissions. However, there is an urgent need for a cleaner technology to solve the continuous emissions by fuel gas combustion because it remains high even after 20 years of forecasting. This paper is the pioneer to address the impact of implemented CO2 reduction technologies in offshore oil and gas fields in the Southeast Asia region.