Environment Report 2017

ENVIRONMENT REPORT 2017

Gas Venting Gas venting, similar to gas flaring, releases natural gas associated with production directly to the atmosphere, but without ignition. Venting is largely used as a safety mechanism to release gas pressure when a safe level may have been exceeded. Venting is also subject to consent under the Petroleum Act 1998 through application to the OGA. Applications undergo a detailed review and those operators that vent over five tonnes per day will be reviewed annually. All venting activity must be reported in EEMS.

Just under 37,000 tonnes of gas were vented on the UKCS last year, a 12 per cent decrease on 2015 following a 10 per cent increase from 2014.

Gas venting is reported under EEMS as either operational, maintenance, emergency or gross. Gross is reported when a breakdown is not available and could therefore be any of the other categories; the majority falls into this category, as shown in Figure 15.

Figure 15: Breakdown of Gas Venting by Source

Gross

Emergency

Maintenance

Operational

50,000

45,000

40,000

35,000

30,000

25,000

20,000

15,000 Total Gas Vented (Tonnes)

10,000

5,000

0

2010

2011

2012

2013

2014

2015

2016

Source: EEMS July 2017

28