Regulatory Requirements for Accuracy in Flare Gas Measurement – Synergizing Software Method Advancement to assist the Hardware Technology to meet Accuracy Demands
Abstract Over the years, the industry has been so used to the hard logic of utilizing flare gas meters (notably the ultrasonic flare gas meters) in the measurement of stranded flare gas. This is because it has been a workable solution for years with minimal challenges due to the broader range of accuracy required by regulatory bodies. Usually, companies are either constrained to either utilize the associated gas from the oil and gas facilities as fuel gas to power up the unit or reinject in the reservoir to serve as pressure maintenance agent that pushes the oil towards the reservoir, or stored in the reservoir and/or flare the gas (which in most cases, have been deployed by operators despite the penalties by the regulatory organization). With the recent steer in carbon capture, natural gas utilization, climate change and energy transition, accuracy level demands has been made more stringent with some countries including Nigeria requesting for 2.5 – 3% accuracy level of measurement from operators in a bid to monitor and curb the essence flue gases that are unaccounted for. This can only be for gases flared during routine conditions which does include when process upsets give rise to shut down and blowdown of gases through the flare header to the flare tip. The high demand of measurement accuracy has opened windows for OEM to produce calibrated meters that are bespoke with a longer timeline for recalibration as most of the hardware in critical operations could require a process shutdown to either maintain, repair, calibrate or even replace. With this growing concerns in the industry and the surging growth of digitalization involving AI, data analytics etc in other areas, the software method would be a potential source of synergy to assist the failing hardware which are being impacted by time as calibration issues continue to resurface throughout the life of the meters, giving rise to wider accuracy measurement in the region 5 – 10%, hence attracting the hammer from the regulators. This paper is intended to produce a deep dive of the current regulatory requirements for gas measurement in Nigeria by the regulators (DPR), the impact of the recent 3% accuracy requirements as it impacts both large and medium size operators, the role of gas measurement software for bridging the gaps and shortfalls of the hardware components. A case study of newly developed flare gas measurement software and its impact in assisting operators in gas performance reporting, production allocation and flare penalties where applicable