New Perspective of Unconventional Hydrocarbon Production With Emission Calculations
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.29017/scog.v48i3.1790Keywords:
Shale gas, engineering estimations, carbon dioxide emissions, methane gas emissionsAbstract
The Paris Agreement aims to limit global temperature rise to below 2°C, with Indonesia committing to
achieving net zero emissions by 2060. The oil and gas industry contributes around 15% of global
emissions. On the other hand, as a developing country, we still depend on fossil fuels to meet our energy
needs. Based on data from the IEA in 2015, Indonesia has 303 TCF of shale gas reserves that we use to
meet future energy needs. This study conducts a case study on a shale gas field (field X) by calculating
greenhouse gas emissions using engineering estimation methods. These calculations estimate methane
and carbon dioxide emissions using activity data from each process and emission factors published in
the 2021 API Compendium. Furthermore, this study analyzes emission control strategy scenarios so that field X produces fluids optimally with lower emissions.
Based on the results of the field emission source study, emissions originate from two stages, namely
pre-production, including normal operating processes such as mud degassing in drilling operations,
flowback in hydraulic fracturing, and well test operations, followed by the production stage, including
venting or gas release operations such as pneumatic controllers, casing gas vents, workover processes,
and several gas processing tools such as glycol dehydration and glycol pumps. Thus, the total emissions
generated during 12 years of production are estimated at 90.24 million tons of CO2e. A development
scenario for field X is a combination scenario of 20% regulating the production flow rate and number
of wells, resulting in an emission reduction ratio of 23% and a recovery factor of 28%.
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