Associated petroleum gas in Russia: the state and prospects of rational use
The results of 2016 are summed up - the share of APG's useful use has grown to 87% (at the state standard of 95%). But this is the "average temperature in the hospital". This indicator is retained and raised thanks to the advanced oil producing regions - at the same time this figure is much lower in most hard-to-reach fields. One of the expert explanations is that effective technologies for working with APG have not yet reached such fields, or their implementation there is economically unprofitable, and therefore - is not in demand.
A fair, wise arbiter and organizer of the further beneficial use of APG can only be the state. With the support of civil society, it is only able, through certain legal mechanisms and financial and economic incentives, to ensure the interests of oil industry workers and to support their motivation to engage in such a troublesome and complicated business - effective utilization of associated gas (including low-pressure APG).
And it should be done in the maximum possible volumes, which are realistically achievable only through modern oil degassing technologies and multi-stage separation - with qualitative treatment of APG for transport, its use in the form of fuel gas or complex chemical processing.
The 8th international conference "APG 2017", organized in Moscow by the company CREON Energy, considered the issues raised precisely through the prism of efficiency. The Chief Executive Officer of CREON Energy, Sanjar Turgunov, accentuated: the entire APG industry will revolve around the efficiency of associated gas. The technologies of its rational use have long been developed, and they are in Russia. Now, we thoroughly evaluate their economic efficiency. And the main condition here is to come to the balance of interests of the state, oil workers and the ecological community.
The conference noted that following the results of the last year gas production in Russia increased by 0.6%, and the increase was provided solely due to APG. Its volumes increased from 78.6 to 83.3 billion m3. The share of produced natural gas remained unchanged. Moreover, the volumes of APG production are named without taking into account flare gas. The volume of flared APG amounted to 12.4 billion cubic meters (an increase of 15%). This increase in flaring volumes is due to a number of factors, among which are stopping gas processing plants for the repair, and development of new fields.
Vertically Integrated Oil Companies (VIOCs) traditionally lead in the production of associated gas, which in 2016 increased volumes by almost 8%, and now their total market share of APG is 80%. As a result, capacity utilization, as noted above, was 87%, which is slightly lower than in 2015 (88.2%). This indicator decreased for the first time since 2011.
However, by 2020, it is expected to tighten fines for the excess of APG flaring, which will encourage the producing companies to increase the use of associated gas.
Experts state: a special program of APG utilization is implemented by several large extractive companies. At the same time, flaring will be continued in new fields which receive a special tax treatment. A number of companies will still be in the process of implementing investment programs. Therefore, despite the fact that a significant increase in the share of APG's useful use is projected, the mandatory level of 95% by 2020 will not generally be achieved.
There are fundamental reasons for this - systemic ones. For example, the oil and gas industry operates with the universal concepts of Upstream (these are process operations for extraction of mineral resources from the bowels) and Downstream (process operations to convert minerals into final consumption products). Today it is also proposed to introduce the intermediate term Midstream.
The expert rationale is as follows. Neither oil nor gas can be recycled (Downstream) in the form in which they were produced. At a minimum, you need transport, but in fact, you also need treatment for transport. In addition, both the oil and gas Upstream generate a large flow of associated products: APG, condensate, sulfur, helium, etc. It is impossible to directly use them, since process operations are required to give certain consumer performance to associated products.
Thus, the Midstream segment could include field based oil and gas treatment for transportation, full processing ("fat" and sour gas), transportation of oil and gas, extraction and initial treatment of associated products (APG processing, de-ethanization of condensate), secondary processing of associated products to the "resalable condition" (stabilization of condensate, fractionation of NGLs).
At the same time, the increase in fines for excess flaring of APG is supported exclusively by the Upstream segment, and no specific measures are being taken to stimulate Midstream. As a result, over the last decade in Russia, the rational use of APG is growing due to energy and the loading of existing processing capacities.
In addition to the expansion of Vyngapurovsky Gas Processing Plant of "Sibur" due to the commissioning of the second stage (March 2016) and the commissioning of the Caspian Gas Processing Plant of "Lukoil" (December 2015), no new gas processing plants are yet available. There is waiting for its state solution and stimulating the problem of low production rates and remote fields.
There is also a long-overdue problem of participation in the utilization of APG by commercial companies that are not associated with the holders of associated gas in the person of VIOC. The issue is not even in the process of attracting investments, but in the legal uncertainty of the parties arising when executing long-term (more than 10 years) contracts. That is, the current legislation does not provide normative protection for the Upstream companies - either as resource suppliers or Midstream enterprises as processors and investors. Therefore, examples of the participation of independent commercial companies in such projects are still singular.
OUR REFERENCE
In the oil and gas community there is a tradition - non-standard process tasks are to trust engineering teams, repeatedly tested in practice. The experience of APG treatment and compression projects is constantly growing in the ENERGAS Companies Group.
Since 2007, ENERGAS has supplied and commissioned 243 booster compressor stations (BCS) and block-type gas treatment units (BGTU). In the oil and gas industry, they produce associated gas in 40 oil fields. In the electric power industry, 60 modern power units with a total capacity of more than 4,300 MW are provided by high-quality fuel gas. Totally in the company's assets there are 123 projects implemented.
Gas treatment equipment of ENERGAS operate in conjunction with various types of gas-using equipment, including gas turbine and gas reciprocating units, gas pumping units, boiler stations.
Unique experience in the individual design and long-term operation of process systems and modular units for treatment of natural or associated petroleum gas has been developed by the joint use with the gas turbine equipment of the leading domestic and world manufacturers: UEC-Gas Turbines and NPO Saturn, UEC-Perm Engines and UEC-Aviadvigatel, Kazan and Ufa Engine Industrial Associations, Nevsky Zavod, General Electric, Siemens, Alstom, Turbomach, Centrax, Solar, Pratt & Whitney, Rolls-Royce, Kawasaki.
BCS and BGTU of "ENERGAS" operate at various oil and gas production facilities. These are power centers and power plants for own needs, oil treatment units, oil processing and pumping shops, oil verification departments, booster pumping stations, main transfer pumping stations, preliminary water removal units, central production facilities, central oil/gas gathering stations, terminal separation units, complex gas treatment plants.
Small gas compressor units (SGCU) are new and up-to-date offer in the list of equipment produced and supplied by ENERGAS. SGCU’s are created for the following purposes:
- gathering and transportation of APG in fields with small hydrocarbon reserves;
- treatment of fuel for small-capacity turbines at small-scale power plants;
- supply of fuel gas to generating equipment of the autonomous power supply centers of enterprises;
- ensuring the activities of oil and gas and other industrial enterprises.
In general, process equipment of ENERGAS, intended for complex treatment and compression of gas, is reliably operated at various facilities of the oil and gas industry and electric power industry, including special purpose facilities - gas turbines test benches at power engineering enterprises. At the same time, the design parameters of the gas are guaranteed and maintained stably in terms of purity, temperature, pressure and flow.