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Adgas profits up on flare cuts

Average gas flaring at the Abu Dhabi Gas Liquefaction Company, or Adgas, dropped to 8.5 million standard cubic feet daily, or MMSCFD, in 2011, as several projects went into operation along with the plant efficiency that brought down greenhouse emissions by a hefty 40,000 metric tonnes of carbon dioxide, or CO2, a report said.

The liquefied gas company made the achievement against a gas flaring target of 8.9 MMSCFD for 2011.

In the last six years, the LNG producer, which is part of the Abu Dhabi National Oil Company, has drastically reduced natural gas flaring by 63 per cent from a high of 22.7 MMSCFD in 2005 to 8.5 MMSCFD in 2011, the Annual Sustainability Report 2011 said, earning profits by converting the gas which used to go into flaring into LNG.

Adgas plans to further cut the emissions by 53 per cent on 2011 emission levels to four per cent in 2015, the report said.

Reviewing the year 2011, chief executive officer Fahim Kazim said Adgas “continued to create value addition to its shareholder by increasing the net profit above the set target.”

The report said Adgas’ output exceeded the production target by 6.6 per cent to 7.70 million metric tonnes in 2011, out of which it sold 7.54 million metric tonnes.

The state-owned gas company linked the profit-making success to the implementation of various mega projects it had launched in recent years and completed last year, including fuel gas process control Train-3, the implementation of flaring handling and emission reduction project one and two. It said plant efficiency enhancement also led to the reduction in the flaring.

In order to cut emissions, Adgas prepared two schemes to revamp the fuel-gas system in LNG train and re-routing the rich DEA and rich carbonate flash-gases from LNG Trains 1, 2 and 3.

Last year, it successfully commissioned and implemented phase one of scheme-1. Under the project, Adgas commissioned a new recovery gas header with a capacity for recovering up to 10 MMSCFD of excess fuel gas from LNG Train-3.

It also commissioned scheme-2, under which it installed equipment for the recovery of flash-gases from carbonate and DEA flash drums in LNG Trains 1, 2 and 3. The commissioning of these projects will result in the cut-back of CO₂emissions by 124,000 metric tonnes per year.

Adgas has accomplished gas flaring reduction of nearly six MMSCFD.

Recovery and utilisation of the gases will reduce the consumption of natural gas in the LNG plant and minimise emissions of greenhouse, it said.

The reduced flaring at Adgas’ LNG facilities on Das Island will mitigate the effects of climate change.

The reduced flaring will boost sustainable development, which will not only make the environment greener by cutting down the local air pollution. With the massive reduction in the pollution levels, would have positive impact on turtles and migrant birds, the two important species of the area.

haseeb@khaleejtimes.com