The Siri platform operated by Statoil has become the first Danish offshore installation to cease flaring gas.
On 7 April, a good two years after this marginal field west of Esbjerg came on stream, a system for recovering flare gas was also put into operation.
Varying amounts of gas — averaging 25,000 cubic metres per day -— were previously flared in connection with production shutdowns or process trips.
All gas is now either used for power generation or injected in the reservoir. Only a small pilot flame consuming 300 cubic metres of gas per day continues to burn at the flare tip.
According to technical adviser Albert Johnsen, even the volumes that used to be flared on Siri were low by comparison with other Danish offshore installations.
Gas recovery and environmental advances such as injection of produced water are part of Siri’s production philosophy, which builds in turn on Statoil’s ambition to eliminate harmful emissions.
Mr Johnsen says that it has taken time to incorporate the various prototype solutions.
The principle of simultaneous water and gas (Swag) injection into the reservoir has been a success from the word go, for instance.
However, injecting produced water has increased wear on the injection pumps, and their design is to be modified.