oil and gas sector e&p reporting protocol

Oil and Gas Sector E&P Reporting ProtocolFor

Western Regional Air Partnership

May 4, 2009Presented by: Science Applications International Corporation and Environ International Corporation

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Task 2: Significant SourcesTask 2: Significant Sources

Technical team tasked to develop a list of significant source categories by basin for the 6 member states/provinces in the WCI• Includes New Mexico, California, Utah, Montana, British Columbia

and Manitoba• Significance was defined as those sources contributing to the top

95% of GHG emissions in a basin• Basins were defined using accepted USGS basin boundary

definitions (consistent with past western states inventory efforts)

Screening-level inventories vs. reporting• Screening-level inventories developed at the basin level where

possible, to attempt to account for regional variations in the significant sources

• This is only for purposes of determining significant sources – reporting regulations are considering field/operational control as the reporting basis

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Procedure for determining significant source categories• Activity and equipment information obtained from a variety of

sources including past inventory development efforts (e.g. WRAP, California districts) and survey data received from companies through API coordination

• Data represents the aggregate of quantitative information on equipment, processes, activity, configurations from dozens of individual companies operating across the western U.S.

• Aggregate data was used to develop screening-level inventories for each basin for which this data was available and presented as an estimate of the percentage contribution of source categories to total GHG emissions

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Limitations of the screening-level inventories• Activity and equipment information could not be obtained for all

basins – for this reason screening-level inventories were created for generic production types using available data

• Activity and equipment information could not be obtained for all source categories – where a source category was considered by the technical team to be potentially significant but for which no data was available, this was discussed

• Data was aggregated from many sources, including data collected confidentially through various prior WRAP inventory efforts for this sector – this limited the nature of the data that could be presented in the Task 2 report

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List of Significant Combustion Sources by Region (w/percent contribution representing 95% of all GHG sources)

San Juan (South Basin)1 Uinta Basin2

Permitted Compressor Engines (24.5%) Heaters/Boilers (21.9%)

Permitted Heaters/Boilers (13.9%) Unpermitted Compressor Engines (6.3%)

Unpermitted Compressor Engines (13.0%) Permitted Compressor Engines (5.9%)

Permitted NG Turbines (7.4%) Artificial Lift Engines (5.6%)

Unpermitted Heaters/Boilers (6.8%) Drill Rigs (3.8%)

Workover Rigs (1.6%)

Artificial Lift Engines (1.2%)

1 Note: The San Juan (South) Basin in northwestern New Mexico has a combination of tight sands gas,CBM gas and some oil production.2 Note: The Uinta Basin in northeastern Utah has a combination of tight sands gas, CBM gas andconventional oil production.

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List of Significant Venting/Fugitive Sources by Region (w/percent contribution representing 95% of all GHG sources)

1 Note: The San Juan (South) Basin in northwestern New Mexico has a combination of tight sands gas,CBM gas and some oil production.2 Note: The Uinta Basin in northeastern Utah has a combination of tight sands gas, CBM gas andconventional oil production.

San Juan (South Basin)1 Uinta Basin2

Well Completion Venting (17.8%) Pneumatic Devices (32.2%)

Well Blowdowns (7.2%) Pneumatic Pumps (15.6%)

Flaring (1.2%) Wellhead Fugitives (4.1%)

Wellhead Fugitives (1.1%)

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List of Significant Combustion Sources by Production Type (w/percent contribution representing 95% of all GHG sources)

California Offshore Tight Sands Gas CBM Gas

Gas Turbines (57.7%) Compressor Engines (33.0%) Compressor Engines (46.0%)

Supply Boats (2.2%) Heaters/Boilers (17.5%) Heaters/Boilers (25.4%)

Drill Rigs (3.9%)

Workover Rigs (1.8%)

Turbines (1.6%)

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List of Significant Venting/Fugitive Sources by Production Type (w/percent contribution representing 95% of all GHG sources)

California OffshoreTight Sands Gas

Production CBM Gas Production

Flaring (20.1%) Pneumatic Devices (14.3%) Well Blowdowns (15.3%)

Fugitives (16.1%) Fugitives (10.9%) Fugitives (4.7%)

Flaring (7.6%) Pneumatic Devices (3.5%)

Condensate Tanks (2.7%) Flaring (2.6%)

Well Blowdowns (2.2%)

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List of Significant Combustion Sources by Production Type (w/percent contribution representing 95% of all GHG sources)

Conventional Oil Production Conventional Gas Production

Heaters/Boilers (26.6)% Compressor Engines (52.2%)

Drill Rigs (6.0%) Heater/Boilers (11.26%)

Drill Rigs (7.36%)

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List of Significant Venting/Fugitive Sources by Production Type (w/percent contribution representing 95% of all GHG sources)

Conventional Oil Production Conventional Gas Production

Artificial Lift Engines (18.9%) Pneumatic Devices (11.5%)

Pneumatic Devices (15.5%) Fugitives (8.2%)

Oil Tanks (12.0%) Well Blowdowns (1.7%)

Pneumatic Pumps (10.0%) Dehydrators (1.7%)

Fugitives (6.7%)

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Comments received on significant source categories lists• List of significant sources useful in a qualitative manner (for

inventory purposes), however since lists represent blended contributions they might skew data when assessing relevance to methodology development

• Data uncertainties and variability across and within production basins obscure how methodology used could help identify sources that contribute less than 5% of the inventory

• Examples from comments: Offshore sources developed using 2 typical platforms (one for shore-based power and

one for on-board power) – Many platforms converting to shore-based power Relative ranking for CBM well blow-down seems very high Relative rankings of modeling software for E&P tanks and process simulation needs to

be revisited and confirmed Fugitive emission contributions seem high from offshore platforms For conventional oil, compressors seem to comprise too small a percentage

• Footnote should be added to each table to discuss uncertainty associated with the rankings

oil and gas sector e&p reporting protocol

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