Saudi Aramco: Methane Mitigation Efforts

Saudi Aramco adopted its first environmental protection policy back in 1963, roughly a decade before the United Nations’ landmark Conference on the Human Environment. Since then, Saudi Aramco has worked to minimize, manage, and mitigate the environmental footprint of its oil and gas operations, and to protect natural ecosystems.

Saudi Aramco engages collaboratively with the Global Methane Initiative and its partners, focusing on reducing barriers to the recovery and use of methane as a clean energy source in the oil and gas sector. Below is a summary of Saudi Aramco’s methane mitigation activities.

Saudi Aramco Flaring Minimization Program

Saudi Aramco uses innovative flaring reduction technologies at its oil and gas operations, including flare gas recovery systems and zero discharge technologies. Saudi Aramco has also established a Fourth Industrial Revolution Center that monitors the company’s operations, including flaring, in real-time, to minimize flaring and support its energy efficiency programs.

Saudi Aramco also established a Flaring Minimization Program, composed of three main elements:

Saudi Aramco Master Gas System
Saudi Aramco Corporate Flaring Roadmap
Saudi Aramco Near Zero Flaring

The Flaring Minimization Program began in the 1970s with the deployment of the Master Gas System. The system eliminated flaring of all of the company’s associated gas (more than 4,000 million standard cubic feet per day (MMSCFD), which represented 95% of the company’s total flared volume at the time. Simultaneously, the company eliminated more than 98.5 million metric tons of carbon dioxide (CO₂) atmospheric emissions.

In the 2000s, Saudi Aramco deployed its Corporate Flaring Roadmap, which enabled further flaring reductions of 100 MMSCFD, representing an overall flaring reduction of 98%.

During the 2010s, Saudi Aramco invested substantially in Near Zero Flaring Technologies (ZDT), which captured another 50 MMSCFD of flared gas. This achievement allowed the company to capture more than 99% of its raw produced gas.

Components of the Saudi Aramco Flaring Minimization Program

Saudi Aramco Flaring Minimization Program Achievements

Saudi Aramco Joins World Bank Initiative: Zero Routine Flaring by 2030

On 6 November 2019, Saudi Aramco officially announced its endorsement of the World Bank Initiative: Zero Routine Flaring by 2030.

Some of the key points highlighted during the endorsement were:

Saudi Aramco’s track record in minimizing routine flaring — flaring less than 1% of its total raw gas production in the first half of 2019.
Saudi Aramco’s upstream carbon intensity figure in 2018 was among the lowest globally (at 10.2 kilograms of CO₂ equivalent per barrel of oil equivalent).

World Bank Senior Representatives Visited Saudi Aramco’s Operations in 2019

Saudi Aramco Leak Detection and Repair Program

Since 2018, Saudi Aramco has been implementing a comprehensive Leak Detection and Repair Program (LDAR), enabling additional methane emissions reductions by identifying and mitigating fugitive leaks. The LDAR program is designed to systematically identify and repair leaking equipment and components, such as valves, flanges, connectors, pumps, compressors, and tanks.

The program involves all of Saudi Aramco’s wholly-owned operating facilities across the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, and requires conducting detailed process analysis, tagging millions of components, performing field surveys on all equipment, repairing leaks, upgrading equipment, changing processes, and verifying emissions before and after executed repairs.

In 2019, Saudi Aramco revised its LDAR protocol to further improve monitoring and repair enforcement. Saudi Aramco expects to deploy new technologies to monitor and minimize fugitive emissions, such as specialized drones for methane detection and quantification, Optical Gas Imaging (OGI), and use of next generation valves.

Implementation of the LDAR Program at the Shaybah NGL Plant

Saudi Aramco Greenhouse Gas (GHG) Emissions Management Program

Saudi Aramco established a GHG Emissions Management Program (GEMP) to address ever-evolving environmental challenges. The program has helped Saudi Aramco identify and minimize GHG emissions of CO₂, nitrous oxide, and methane; enhance performance of its operations and products; and establish a protocol for improvements.

As part of the GEMP, an innovative, digital GHG monitoring solution was deployed to facilitate GHG accounting and reporting. The monitoring solution utilizes a real-time monitoring platform to integrate, automate, and calculate GHG emissions down to the equipment-level from all of Saudi Aramco’s164 oil and gas facilities. The solution also utilizes datasets gathered under the company’s LDAR Program to account for methane emissions. By leveraging a central solution-based information management platform that provides complete, accurate, and transparent operational data, Saudi Aramco can fulfill corporate reporting and environmental management objectives .