Total To End Gas Flaring By 2015

Total upstream has given a firm assurance concerning its efforts to put an end to gas flare from its major production facilities in the Niger Delta region.

The company said it has embarked on various gas gathering initiatives which it hoped would accelerate almost a zero flare of gas in those systems.

Elizabeth Proust, the managing director and chief executive officer of Total upstream companies in Nigeria, who made this disclosure in an interview with Leadership said presently its Ofon field was the only major installation where gas flaring occurs but affirmed management’s decision to stop flaring there in January 2015.

Proust disclosed that other installations, onshore on OML58, on the FPSO and on other platforms are all connected already to a gas utilisation solution designed to inject or commercialise the gas.

“So we will achieve zero flaring, though installations will maintain a small steady flow of gas to maintain a safety flare. All gas flaring associated with oil exploration will be stopped by January 2015. There will be a formal flare out ceremony to which you will be invited.” She reassured On domestic gas utilisation efforts, the CEO said the company has invested in a 24 inch wide 50kilometre long pipeline onshore starting from OML58 to go to Imo River.

“ Here we already have a contract with the Alaoji Power Plant and this is our first customer and we will be ready in 2015 to deliver 100 million cubic meters per day. We have contacted other industrial users, not just power plants because when you have the energy it stimulates development. My plan is that by 2017, we should evacuate 300 million cubic feet of gas through the pipeline.” She stated.

According to her, “Its a huge pipeline crossing several communities. So it was not so easy. The cost of the pipeline is now around $900 million. To get return on such investment in pipeline, we need effectively good clients and an improved gas price.”

She stressed the need to review the existing gas price because it cannot cover the budget of the pipeline, adding, “I hope that with increased industrial uptake we will be able to achieve a better price and we can offset the cost of investment in the pipeline.”

Source: Leadership