Abstract Qatar Petroleum is committed to trying to achieve zero gas flaring. We have carried out important field changes to reduce it. As a result, we have significantly reduced gas flaring, recovered more hydrocarbons, protected the environment, and made financial gains by optimum utilization of the field existing infrastructure.
Gas Flaring is an important aspect of oil and gas field operations. It provides a safe relief for the production facilities whenever excess fluids or out of specification products need to be released. However, it has an adverse effect on the environment that needs to be resolved. Also valuable by-products could be recovered.
QP applied environmental regulations and drew on our experience to evaluate flaring sources and devise plans to mitigate flaring. We used recommendations from our evaluation studies to identify the necessary operational actions and plant changes.
We have identified four main factors affecting flaring: 1) field development planning 2) the design, construction, operation, and maintenance of field processing facilities 3) investment economics and 4) regulatory instructions. The operational actions and plant changes that we made have reduced gas flaring. Many other projects and studies are in progress to reduce flaring and ensure we comply with environmental protection requirements. This article explains the Qatar Petroleum flaring philosophy and the changes and modifications completed or in progress in Dukhan field that reduce flaring as we aim to achieve ‘Zero Flaring.’