Govt issues flaring permit for Banyu Urip project
Saturday, March 28 2015 - 04:14 AM WIB
The Ministry of Environment and Forestry has issued a permit for the operator of the Banyu Urip project in the Cepu block to flare the field?s gas up to 23 mmscfd.
?The flaring permit was issued last week. Under the permit, gas from Banyu Urip can be flared up to 23 mmscfd until December 2015," acting Director General of Oil and Gas IGN Wiratmadja Puja said Friday.
He explained that the amount of gas flaring at the field is quite high. Thus, there are a lot of requirements that should be met by the operator ? ExxonMobil Cepu Ltd ? in flaring the gas.
Meanwhile, Chairman of upstream authority SKK Migas Amien Sunaryadi said that the amount of gas flaring at the field has now reached 16 mmscfd and will continue to increase.
"Once the construction of the project has been finalized and the field has come into full capacity, the gas will no longer be flared, but will be used for injection," Amin said.
Gas flaring is the burning of natural gas that is associated with crude oil when it is pumped up from the ground. In petroleum-producing areas where infrastructure is lacking to utilize natural gas, flaring is employed to dispose of the associated gas. Flaring is a contributor to carbon dioxide emissions and thus needs permit from the environmental authority.
Editing by Johannes Simbolon