A Sustainability Project Towards Zero Continuous Flaring and Zero Flaring of Oil and Gas Facilities
Authors: Ghazali M. F , Ahmad S M. S 
Published: October 2023

The Bokor Betty Rejuvenation & Brownfield project involved in objective not only to increase the field production of gas and oil, but the project also aligned with PETRONAS sustainability initiative and its aspiration to achieve Net Zero Carbon Emission by 2050 as part of its holistic approach to sustainability that balances Environment, Social and Governance (ESG). This project execution was starting in 2018, the rejuvenation and brownﬁeld project of an existing ﬁeld that has been produced for many years.

The main scope of this Brownfield and Rejuvenation project is as follow.

Decommissioned two (2) of the existing old remote vent platform BeV-A and BoV-A platform. Monetized the gas produced from the wells by installing Ejector Vapor Recovery Units (EVRU). Performed the conversion and integration of the existing venting system with the new Central Processing Platform (CPP) flare system.

In Malaysia, it recorded the annual Carbon Dioxide (CO2) emissions rate in 2020 is 272.62 million t lower than the previous year in 2019 with 278.88 million t (Hannah Ritchie & Max Roser, 2022). The overall strategy developed during the front-end study of this project, the objective to achieve zero continuous ﬂaring and zero venting, was the main objective for the project apart to sustain the production from this oil and gas ﬁeld in Sarawak, Malaysia. It was a crucial project to support the international agenda and target for the zero-emission producing platform, yet still, prolong the production of gas and oil from the ﬁeld. The challenges were also to work the hook-up and commissioning of the new facilities on the existing brownﬁeld platform.

This new facility needs to install a knock-out drum, ﬂare system, EVRU, and decommissioning existing facilities such as vent platform and compressor. Through this comprehensive, detailed engineering and study, the construction commenced and translated the actual execution during the oﬀshore works & the team successfully installed all new facilities with the existing platform and integrated the system. The integrated commissioning and start-up were structured detailed in and out to ensure the ultimate sustainability target for the project on zero venting and zero continuous flaring are achieved.

Oﬀshore execution for this project was held from 2018 until 2021, and the team achieved decommissioning of the existing old remote vent platform. This ensures the zero venting for this ﬁeld that has been producing for many years, and ﬁnally, we reached zero venting for this ﬁeld and supporting the PETRONAS sustainability target for net-zero emission by 2050. The project also successfully converted the vent to the ﬂare system of the existing brownﬁeld platform with the integration with the new Central Processing Platform (CPP).

A successful project that ended the 40 years of venting gas into the atmosphere is a significant milestone for a sustainability project to save our environment from carbon emissions. The project successfully reduced Greenhouse Gas (GHG) 2.25 million t CO2e/year from its operation with the decommissioning of the vent system, redevelopment of its facilities, and monetizing the gas from wells with the upgrading of its gas processing facilities. This GHG 2.25 million is equivalent to Greenhouse Gas emissions from 489,330 passenger cars driven for a year.