Tengizchevroil pays $11.5 mln fine for unauthorised flaring
By Staff reporter | 22 September 2011 16:42 GMT
Tengizchevroil, the company developing the Tengiz and Korolevskoye oil and gas fields in western Kazakhstan, has paid environmental damages of more than 1.7 billion tenge ($11.5 million), the environmental prosecutor for the Atyrau region, Arshat Taitullin said on Wednesday.
“These environmental damages were caused by unauthorised flaring of associated gas at Tengizchevroil’s oil refinery at the Tengiz field. The claim has been satisfied in full, the stated amount was collected for the government on 9 September,” Taitullin said at a briefing.
The claim was filed on the recommendation of the environmental prosecutor of the Zhaiyk-Kaspiysky environment department.
A landmark four-year gas utilisation project completed by TengizChevroil in 2010 resulted in the capping of flare towers at Tengiz, Kazakhstan’s largest oil field.
In December 2004, Kazakhstan introduced measures aimed at reducing the flaring of gas associated with oil production. In October 2005 and January 2007 the parliament prohibited this practice, although some exemptions were made in relation to industrial and environmental hazards and pilot projects involving experimental field development and tests (up to three years, subject to governmental approval).
“Flaring off gas is punishable by large fines, so many companies have set up gas-turbine plants to produce electricity from purified gas,” Alexei Cherednichenko, a researcher at the Kazakhstani Ecological Scientific Research Institute told Interfax on Thursday.
Kazakhstan hopes to end gas flaring by 2012. Flaring accounts for one-fifth of the gas counted as produced but not available for sale. Part of the push to ban gas flaring has been related to oil and gas condensate deposits in Kazakhstan which are known for their high gas-to-oil ratio, Cherednichenko added.
“Depending on the region, 25 to 1,000 cubic metres. of accompanying gas may be produced per ton of extracted oil,” he said. “Besides, associated gas in Kazakhstan has a high sulphur dioxide and methane content, making raw gas unfit for transportation because it destroys the interior of the pipeline” he said.
The volume of unwanted gas burnt off by oil and gas companies between 2006 and 2010 shrank to 1.35 billion cubic metres from 3.13 bcm. per year, according to Kazakhstan’s National Statistics Committee.
In 2010, the Ministry of Environmental Protection conducted 10,500 inspections and found 8,500 environmental code violations, netting $39.6 million in fines.
Tengizchevroil pays $11.5 mln fine for unauthorised flaring
Tengizchevroil, the company developing the Tengiz and Korolevskoye oil and gas fields in western Kazakhstan, has paid environmental damages of more than 1.7 billion tenge ($11.5 million), the environmental prosecutor for the Atyrau region, Arshat Taitullin said on Wednesday.
“These environmental damages were caused by unauthorised flaring of associated gas at Tengizchevroil’s oil refinery at the Tengiz field. The claim has been satisfied in full, the stated amount was collected for the government on 9 September,” Taitullin said at a briefing.
The claim was filed on the recommendation of the environmental prosecutor of the Zhaiyk-Kaspiysky environment department.
A landmark four-year gas utilisation project completed by TengizChevroil in 2010 resulted in the capping of flare towers at Tengiz, Kazakhstan’s largest oil field.
In December 2004, Kazakhstan introduced measures aimed at reducing the flaring of gas associated with oil production. In October 2005 and January 2007 the parliament prohibited this practice, although some exemptions were made in relation to industrial and environmental hazards and pilot projects involving experimental field development and tests (up to three years, subject to governmental approval).
“Flaring off gas is punishable by large fines, so many companies have set up gas-turbine plants to produce electricity from purified gas,” Alexei Cherednichenko, a researcher at the Kazakhstani Ecological Scientific Research Institute told Interfax on Thursday.
Kazakhstan hopes to end gas flaring by 2012. Flaring accounts for one-fifth of the gas counted as produced but not available for sale. Part of the push to ban gas flaring has been related to oil and gas condensate deposits in Kazakhstan which are known for their high gas-to-oil ratio, Cherednichenko added.
“Depending on the region, 25 to 1,000 cubic metres. of accompanying gas may be produced per ton of extracted oil,” he said. “Besides, associated gas in Kazakhstan has a high sulphur dioxide and methane content, making raw gas unfit for transportation because it destroys the interior of the pipeline” he said.
The volume of unwanted gas burnt off by oil and gas companies between 2006 and 2010 shrank to 1.35 billion cubic metres from 3.13 bcm. per year, according to Kazakhstan’s National Statistics Committee.
In 2010, the Ministry of Environmental Protection conducted 10,500 inspections and found 8,500 environmental code violations, netting $39.6 million in fines.