Effective January 1, 2020, Alberta oil producers and service providers will encounter a new timeline of required fugitive emissions surveys. The frequency of these screenings is based on the equipment or facility type, as defined by Directive 060 issued by the Alberta Energy Regulator (AER).
What’s new?
Under the new guidelines, all of Alberta’s tanks, sweet compressor stations, and sweet gas plants will require emissions checks three times per year (tri-annually).
All other facilities (including sour gas plants, sour compressor stations, oil batteries, satellite facilities, terminals, and injection/disposal facilities) must be surveyed once every year.
These new requirements are detailed in the BC Oil and Gas Commission’s Fugitive Emissions Management Guidelines (released July 2019), which includes the following chart (page 12, Table 3:1).
How do emissions screenings work?
Alberta’s oil and gas companies are required to use trained and reliable detection methods and equipment to regularly confirm that well sites are safe and operating without leaks. Ion Engineering helps companies find and identify any gas leak sources, measure the amount of gas being released, and report to the regulatory authority at the client’s request.
The most dependable detection methods include the use of an Organic Vapour Analyzer and our Gas Imaging Camera. To quantify the size of any gas leaks, Ion uses mass-flow meters and quantitative gas imaging devices, which are new to the market and work in conjunction with the gas imaging camera.
How can your organization prepare to meet the new regulations?
For assistance interpreting the guidelines enacted in the latest edition of AER’s Directive 060, please contact Ion Engineering.