History made as TotalEnergies achieves zero flaring

History made as TotalEnergies achieves zero flaring

Oil giant TotalEnergies EP Nigeria Limited says it has achieved zero routine flaring in its operations, making it the first upstream company in the country to have stopped routine flaring from all its facilities.

Routine flare-out is the stoppage of continuous gas flaring above the nominal safety capacity of an oil and gas facility.

The Country Chair and Managing Director of the French Oil Giant in Nigeria, Mr. Matthieu Bouyer, disclosed this after an inspection tour of OML100 in Port Harcourt.

He explained that in the past years, TotalEnergies had 300 to 350 kSm3 per day of routine flaring, which has now been reduced to zero.

Bouyer revealed that the gas previously flared from the company’s operations was now valued and used for power generation, gas lift to enhance oil and gas production, and the balance exported to Bonny to be liquefied in Nigerian LNG.

He noted that the achievement was important to the company and the country at large, as it will reduce emissions and increase production, while also commending the Federal Ministry of Environment, NUPRC, and NNPC Ltd. for their support.

“The objective of this project is to double or reduce our emissions. Our company objective is to fully stop routine flaring in the company by 2030. From that standpoint, we are ahead in Nigeria since we stopped in 2023.

“Increase energy production: by stopping routine flaring, we are able to valorize the gas, thereby creating value for the country.

“This achievement is one of the practical demonstrations of TotalEnergie’s commitment to deliver less carbon-intensive energy to our customers and also aligns with the Nigerian government’s objective to foster a low-carbon economy. In a nutshell, it is more energy for less emissions,” Bouyer said.

On whether the company’s future projects will flare gas, TotalEnergies’ boss held that all its new projects have a mandatory, non-routine flaring design.

“The rule is that any new project should improve the emissions intensity of our operations. For example, our recent projects such as Egina and Ikike were stared up without flaring.”

The company further noted that other initiatives taken to reduce emissions revolved around CO2 (carbon dioxide) and CH4 (methane) emissions reduction in its operations through the mobilization of the best available technologies around three pillars.

These pillars, according to the company, include reducing methane emissions, reducing fuel gas consumption, and reducing flaring further on its facilities.

“Reducing methane emissions is a priority, and TotalEnergies intends to establish an exemplary track record in this area. AUSEA drone campaigns allow us to detect and measure methane emissions on site, so we can take actions towards reducing or eliminating such emissions. We work alongside our partners to implement such best practices on our non-operated assets as well.

“Reducing fuel gas consumption: we develop energy efficiency technologies to reduce our consumption of fuel gas and liquid fuels. For example, we use solar technology onshore with a 5 MW solar project at our OML58 field. It will contribute to producing cleaner oil and gas from the field.

“Reducing flaring further on our facilities. Work is done for routine flaring, and we study the next step, which is reducing further the safety of flaring,” Bouyer explained.