Directive 060: Upstream Petroleum Industry Flaring ...

1 Directive 060: Upstream Petroleum Industry Flaring , incinerating , and venting (March 2018) 1 Directive 060 Release date: March 12, 2018 Effective date: March 29, 2018 Replaces previous edition issued March 22, 2016 Upstream Petroleum Industry Flaring , incinerating , and venting The Alberta Energy Regulator approved this Directive on March 12, 2018. <original s igned by> Jim Ellis President and Chief Executive Officer Contents 1 Introduction .. 5 Purpose of This Directive .. 5 What s New in This Edition .. 5 Flaring , Incineration, and venting Management Hierarchy and Framework .. 5 Access to Production Flaring , Incineration, and venting Data .. 7 AER Requirements .. 8 Notification Through the Designated Information Submission System .. 8 2 Solution Gas Management (Crude Oil / Bitumen Battery Flaring , Incineration, and venting ) .. 9 Solution Gas Flaring Reduction Targets .. 9 Solution Gas venting Reduction .. 9 Solution Gas Flaring and venting Decision Tree.

2 10 Conservation at Crude Bitumen Batteries .. 10 Conservation at Conventional Crude Oil Batteries .. 11 General Conservation Requirements at all Condensate Producing Sites and Crude Oil and Crude Bitumen 11 Clustering .. 12 Power Generation Using Otherwise-Flared/Vented Gas .. 13 Economic Evaluation of Gas Conservation .. 14 Economic Evaluation Criteria .. 14 Alberta Energy Regulator Directive 060: Upstream Petroleum Industry Flaring , incinerating , and venting (March 2018) 2 AER Economic Evaluation Audit Requirements .. 16 Public Involvement .. 17 Public Information Package .. 17 Nonroutine Flaring , Incineration, and venting at Solution Gas Conserving Facilities .. 17 Limitations on Nonroutine Flaring , Incineration, and venting During Outages at Solution Gas Conserving Facilities .. 17 Planned Shutdown (Turnaround) Considerations .. 20 Alternatives to Solution Gas Shut-in Requirements .. 20 Royalty Treatment of Flared and Vented Gas.

3 20 Solution Gas Reporting Requirements and Data Access .. 21 Solution Gas Reporting Requirements .. 21 Cooperating with Third Parties .. 21 3 Temporary and Well Test Flaring and incinerating .. 22 Temporary Flaring and incinerating Decision Tree .. 22 Oil and Gas Well Test Flaring , incinerating , and venting Duration 23 Temporary Flaring /Incineration 25 Conditions That Require a Temporary Flaring /Incineration Permit .. 25 Conditions That Do Not Require a Temporary Flaring /Incineration 27 Flaring and Incineration Permits for Underbalanced Drilling .. 29 Permit Requirements for Temporary Flares and Incinerators .. 29 General Permit Requirements .. 29 Requests to Exceed the Volume Allowance Threshold .. 29 Blanket Flaring /Incineration 30 AER Review of Permit Requests .. 31 Site-Specific Requirements Related to Well Flaring and Incineration .. 32 Temporary Facilities for In-Line Tests .. 32 Notification Requirements .. 34 Addressing Resident Concerns.

4 36 AER Flaring / incinerating / venting Notice Form .. 37 Reporting Gas Well Test Data .. 37 Zero Flaring Agreements .. 37 4 Gas Battery, Dehydrator, and Compressor Station Flaring , incinerating , and venting .. 39 Gas Battery, Dehydrator, and Compressor Station Flaring , incinerating , and venting Decision Tree .. 39 Notification .. 40 Reporting .. 41 5 Gas Plant Flaring , incinerating , and venting .. 42 Gas Plant Flaring , incinerating , and venting Decision Tree .. 42 Gas Plant Flaring /Incineration/ venting Volume Limits .. 43 Alberta Energy Regulator Directive 060: Upstream Petroleum Industry Flaring , incinerating , and venting (March 2018) 3 Frequent Nonroutine Flaring /Incineration/ venting Events .. 44 Notification .. 45 Measurement and Reporting .. 45 6 Pipeline Flaring , incinerating , and venting .. 47 Pipeline Systems Flaring , Incineration, and venting Decision Tree .. 47 Additional Requirements for Gas Gathering Systems .. 48 Natural Gas Transmission Systems.

5 49 Notification .. 49 7 Performance Requirements .. 50 Conversion Efficiency .. 51 Heating Value and Exit Velocity for Flares .. 51 Minimum Residence Time and Exit Temperature for Incinerators .. 52 Smoke Emissions .. 54 Ignition .. 55 Requests to Extinguish Sour Flare Pilots at All 55 Stack Design .. 56 Sour and Acid Gas Flaring /Incineration Procedures .. 57 Liquid Separation .. 58 Exceptions to Separator 59 Backflash Control .. 60 Flare and Incinerator Spacing Requirements .. 60 Compliance with Fire Bans .. 62 Noise .. 62 Flare Pits .. 62 Dispersion Modelling Requirements for Sour and Acid Gas Combustion .. 63 Modelling Approach .. 63 Individual Source .. 63 SO2 Cumulative Emissions Assessment .. 64 Temporary and Well Test Flaring Dispersion Modelling .. 65 Nonroutine Flaring Dispersion Modelling .. 66 8 venting and Fugitive Emissions Management Requirements .. 71 General Requirements .. 71 Limitations of venting Gas Containing H2S or Other Odorous Compounds.

6 72 Limitations on venting Gas Containing Benzene .. 73 venting of Noncombustible Gas Mixtures .. 73 Coalbed Methane venting .. 74 Fugitive Emissions Management .. 74 Requirements for the Peace River Area .. 74 Background .. 74 Alberta Energy Regulator Directive 060: Upstream Petroleum Industry Flaring , incinerating , and venting (March 2018) 4 Peace River Area Definition .. 74 Requirements .. 75 9 Sulphur Recovery Requirements and Sour Gas Combustion .. 76 Sulphur Recovery Exemption at Solution Gas Conservation Facilities .. 76 10 Measurement and Reporting .. 78 Flaring , Incineration, and venting Records (Logs) .. 78 Appendices 1 References and Contacts 79 2 Definitions of Terms as used in Directive 060 .. 81 3 Abbreviations .. 85 4 Background to Directive 060 .. 86 5 Information for Permit Request to Flare or Incinerate in Exceedance of Flared or Incinerated Volume Allowance Threshold (600, 400, or 200 103 m3 Exceedance).. 88 6 Sour Gas Flaring /Incineration Data Summary Report.

7 90 7 Air Quality Management Plans for Temporary SO2 Emissions .. 91 8 Screening Dispersion Modelling Using AER Spreadsheet .. 93 9 Resident Flaring / venting / incinerating Notification Sample Form .. 96 10 Agreement on Zero Flaring and venting 97 11 Request to Extinguish Sour Gas Flare Pilots .. 98 Figures 1 Solution gas Flaring / venting management framework .. 7 2 Solution gas Flaring / venting decision tree .. 10 3 Temporary Flaring and incineration decision tree .. 23 4 Temporary Flaring /incineration permit process .. 27 5 Facility Flaring , incinerating , and venting decision tree .. 39 6 Facility Flaring , incinerating , and venting decision tree .. 43 7 Pipeline Flaring , incinerating , and venting decision tree .. 48 8 Comprehensive management of the nonroutine Flaring of sour gas .. 67 9 Flare management strategy flowchart .. 70 10 Peace River area .. 75 Tables 1 Limitations and notification requirements for nonroutine Flaring , incinerating , and venting during solution gas conserving facility outage.

8 19 2 Temporary Flaring , venting , and incineration notification requirements .. 34 3 Major Flaring event definition .. 44 4 Cumulative facility or lease site benzene emission limits .. 73 Alberta Energy Regulator Directive 060: Upstream Petroleum Industry Flaring , incinerating , and venting (March 2018) 5 1 Introduction Purpose of This Directive The Alberta Energy Regulator (AER) Directive 060: Upstream Petroleum Industry Flaring , incinerating , and venting contains the requirements for Flaring , incinerating , and venting in Alberta at all Upstream Petroleum Industry wells and facilities. Directive 060 requirements also apply to pipeline installations that convey gas ( , compressor stations, line heaters) licensed by the AER in accordance with the Pipeline Act. With the exception of oil sands mining schemes and operations, Directive 060 applies to all schemes and operations approved under section 10 of the Oil Sands Conservation Act (OSCA). Directive 060 does not apply to any processing plants approved under section 11 of the OSCA.

9 Most of these requirements have been developed in consultation with the Clean Air Strategic Alliance (CASA) to eliminate or reduce the potential and observed impacts of these activities and to ensure that public safety concerns and environmental impacts are addressed before beginning to flare, incinerate, or vent. Directive 060 requirements are also aligned to ensure compliance with Alberta Environment and Parks (AEP) Alberta Ambient Air Quality Objectives and Guidelines (AAAQO). Note: Appendices have been included to further the understanding of Directive 060 requirements. See appendix 1 for a list of references and contacts, appendix 2 for definitions of terms, and appendix 3 for abbreviations. What s New in This Edition In this edition of Directive 060, references to the Digital Data Submission (DDS) system have been replaced with the more generic designated information submission system. Flaring , Incineration, and venting Management Hierarchy and Framework Flaring , incinerating , and venting are associated with a wide range of energy development activities and operations, including disposal of gas associated with oil, bitumen, and gas well drilling; oil, bitumen, and gas well completion or well servicing (well cleanup ); gas well testing to estimate reserves and determine productivity; routine oil or bitumen production (solution gas); planned nonroutine depressurizing of processing equipment and gas pipelines for maintenance; unplanned nonroutine depressurizing of process equipment and gas pipelines due to process upsets or emergency; and oilfield waste management facilities.

10 Alberta Energy Regulator Directive 060: Upstream Petroleum Industry Flaring , incinerating , and venting (March 2018) 6 Two multistakeholder teams from CASA have made recommendations for Flaring , incineration, and venting for the Upstream Petroleum Industry , and the AER has based this Directive on those recommendations (see appendix 4 for background on Directive 060). In particular, the AER has adopted CASA s objective hierarchy and its framework for managing routine solution gas flares (see figure 1) and has extended its application of the hierarchy to include Flaring , incineration, and venting of gas in In accordance with the objective hierarchy, licensees, operators, and approval holders must evaluate the following three options: Can Flaring , incineration, and venting be eliminated? Can Flaring , incineration, and venting be reduced? Will Flaring , incineration, and venting meet performance standards? 1 See CASA s website Alberta Energy Regulator Directive 060: Upstream Petroleum Industry Flaring , incinerating , and venting (March 2018) 7 Figure 1.