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
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