Fugitive and Vented Gas Emissions Across Conventional and Unconventional Oil Developments in Southeastern Saskatchewan, Canada
Abstract
Southeastern Saskatchewan (SK) is a major oil-producing region in central Canada. Mainly, the developed plays include the historic Weyburn-Midale unit (conventional), and Bakken unit (unconventional). Collectively, developments across these plays occupy about 10,000 km2. To help reduce fugitive emissions and venting in SK, we need a baseline understanding of emission patterns across developments, and seasons. We undertook regional-scale monitoring using vehicle-based surveys in the summer, and autumn of 2015 across 7 survey domains of 100 km2 each. Our surveys targeted 5 conventional and Enhanced Oil Recovery (EOR) sites in the Weyburn-Midale field, and 2 unconventional sites in the Bakken. We surveyed each domain 8 times for CO2, CH4, and H2S, which allowed us to identify persistent emission sources of various types. These survey domains allowed us to conduct replicate sampling of 3,000 of 25,000 wells owned by 25 operators in the study area. Persistent fugitive emissions associated with oil infrastructure were present in all 7 domains, with nearly 25% of infrastructure being flagged as a probable emission source. Producing wells were generally the main source of emissions, however facilities were also emitters. Infrastructure age played a role, as older wells tended to emit more frequently than newer wells. Fugitive emission frequency was much more variable between adjacent operators than between development types (conventional vs unconventional), suggesting that opportunity exists to better harmonize emissions management best practice. These results provide a good basis from which operators and policymakers can come together for discussions on how to improve practice and reduce emissions.
- Publication:
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AGU Fall Meeting Abstracts
- Pub Date:
- December 2016
- Bibcode:
- 2016AGUFM.A33C0239B
- Keywords:
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- 0345 Pollution: urban and regional;
- ATMOSPHERIC COMPOSITION AND STRUCTUREDE: 0365 Troposphere: composition and chemistry;
- ATMOSPHERIC COMPOSITION AND STRUCTUREDE: 3355 Regional modeling;
- ATMOSPHERIC PROCESSESDE: 6344 System operation and management;
- POLICY SCIENCES