Baku, Azerbaijan, Sept.11
By Emil Ismayilov - Trend:
SOCAR (State Oil Company of Azerbaijan), is actively working to reduce the emission of associated gas to a minimum within the framework of the "0 emissions" program, the chief engineer of the State Oil Company of Ecology Yagub Agasiev told Trend Sept.11.
He added that the necessary compressor capacities were created in the fields, and in particular on the offshore ones, in order to reduce the amount of atmospheric emission of associated gas of low pressure. New capacities allow for the capture of associated gas and its transportation to the land with a further submission to the overall distribution network of the country. In particular, Agasiev noted the works in the construction of compressor capacities at the Oil Rocks field and the shallow part of the Guneshli field.
"The issue of the collection of associated gas is nearly resolved. It is impossible to bring this figure to zero, but we are approaching to it. The active works are being carried out for that," Agasiev said.
SOCAR plans to reduce atmospheric emissions of the low-pressure gases to zero in 2015. Emissions of the associated gas are at the level of 1-1.5 percent and this is an emission in small volumes, which mainly falls on the onshore fields. The small amounts of emissions complicate their capture, and moreover, it is quite expensive to ensure the process.
SOCAR includes Azneft (onshore and offshore oil and gas producing companies), Azerkimya (chemical industry) and Azerigas production associations.
In addition, the State Oil Company has a number of processing enterprises, service enterprises, institutions involved in geophysical and drilling operations. In addition, SOCAR has assets in Georgia, Turkey and Europe.