Breakthrough Innovative Solutions and Technologies for Greenhouse Gases Reduction

Abstract

Abstract Khurais Producing Department, as one of Saudi Aramco's producing facilities, is sharing this paper to highlight implemented breakthrough innovative solutions and technologies with massive positive impact on the environment. These technologies were introduced to increase the operation reliability, reduce the Greenhouse Gases (GHG) emissions and carbon footprint, and promote circular economy by optimizing power consumption, generating clean power, and eliminating daily routine flaring towards Saudi Aramco's ambition of achieving net-zero Scope 1 and Scope 2 greenhouse gases emissions by 2050, which is a step towards achieving Saudi Arabia's commitment to net-zero by 2060. Driven by the commitment of Khurais managements toward the Saudi Aramco defined environmental protection policies through Khurais Environmental Management System (EMS) that meets the requirements of ISO 14001:2015 and strives for continual improvement, Khurais has set its objectives for protecting the environment and reducing the impact of its day-to-day operation on the surrounding environment. To achieve these objectives, Khurais has developed different plans, such as the Flare Minimization Plan and GHG Assurance Plan, and established key performance indicators (KPIs) through the Operational Excellence (OE) system to track and enhance the environmental performance of the facility. To achieve the objectives identified by Khurais managements and to support their commitment plan for protecting the environment, different initiatives and technologies were deployed at Khurais facility which have significantly contributed to GHG emission reduction. The implemented initiatives include: a) construction of steam turbine generator (STG) part of the combined cycle cogeneration plant to generate clean power, b) installing flare gas recovery system to recover daily routine flaring from the facility, c) deploying the first worldwide Advanced Process Control (APC) for oil production wells for conventional oilfield for optimizing energy consumption, d) installing a swing line connecting all five oil trains’ HP Compressor suction lines to share the feed gas, e) flare minimization during running Oil Train-4 with bypassing damaged stabilizer which was a patented solution deployed to achieve the facility MSC post the attack on Khurais facilities, f) deployment of nonmetallic resin thermal pipe (RTP) material technology for over 60% of the massive crude pipeline network, and g) full deployment of closed draining systems through the construction of WOSEP blowdown system and automatic crude tank dewatering system. This paper will share Khurais efforts in implementing these initiatives and technologies, which touch base on different sources for GHG emission from the facility such as power consumption, flared gas, and material release to the atmosphere. Identifying a plan and implementing these initiatives have contributed to reducing the GHG emissions from Khurais facility.