Environment Report 2015

Carbon Dioxide Emissions and Gas Flared Total offshore CO 2

1

releases have also been benchmarked separately from total offshore atmospheric emissions.

Figure 25 shows that oil requires more energy (more emissions) to produce than condensate and gas.

Gas is flared on the UKCS for maintenance, well testing and for safety reasons, all of which produce atmospheric emissions. When the data are broken down by operator, there is a general link between the mass of gas flared and the mass of CO 2 emitted by oil-producing installations; both increase in Figure 25. Some of those operators may also produce condensate or gas (and contribute to those emissions rankings), and so the comparison is limited. The amount of CO 2 emitted during oil production varies with operational circumstances. Some installations may use cold vent systems rather than flaring for operational and safety reasons. Venting is the controlled release of gases into the atmosphere without burning, which does not produce CO 2 but does produce other gases, such as methane.

2

3

Figure 25: Total CO 2

Emissions per Operator by Hydrocarbon Production Type in 2014

4

1.2

120

Oil

Gas

1

100

5

Condensate

0.8

80

Mobile

Gas Flared

0.6

60

6

0.4 Total CO 2 Emissions (Thousand Tonnes)

40

Gas Flared (Thousand Tonnes)

0.2

20

7

0

0

A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X

Coding refers to each hydrocarbon type separately – for example, the operator ranked A for oil producing installations may be operator X for mobile installations. Gas flared is plotted for the same ranked operator as oil producing installations

Source: EEMS June 2015

Asset Type Condensate 2,228,900

2014

Oil

Gas

Mobile 764,100

Emissions

8,367,600

1,225,100

% of total emissions Average per asset

66%

18%

10%

6%

105,200

66,300

22,900

23,000

page 39