DNO Starts Gas Capture and Injection in Kurdistan
Norway’s DNO on September 11 announced that its $110mn Peshkabir gas capture and injection project in its Tawke licence in the Kurdistan region of Iraq is on stream and 1bn ft3 of gas has been injected.
The company said that the project is expected to reduce annual emissions from operated production by over 300,000 metric tons of CO2 equivalent, offsetting the emissions from some 150,000 automobiles.
Engineering and construction were launched in mid-2018 and commissioning completed in mid-2020 in what is the first gas capture and storage project in Kurdistan. Some 20mn ft3/day of previously flared gas at the Peshkabir field is gathered, treated and transported 80-km by pipeline to the Tawke field where it is injected for storage and reservoir pressure recharging, DNO said.
Effective June 2020, the project halves the average carbon intensity of the DNO’s operated production from 14-kg CO2 equivalent for each barrel of oil equivalent produced to an average of 7 kg CO2e/boe.
Gas flaring at Peshkabir has been reduced by over 75%, with work underway to reduce it further, DNO said. Injected gas that is re-released at Tawke will be recovered and recycled into the field or used as fuel to displace diesel.
Reservoir models suggest gas injection will increase gross recovery at Tawke by 15 to 80mn barrels of oil, of which 23mn barrels are included in Tawke's gross proven and probable (2P) reserves as of the end of 2019.
DNO’s greenhouse gas emissions spiked after Peshkabir started production in 2017, as the oil contains a relatively high associated gas content. Flaring from Peshkabir was the largest single contributor to DNO’s total 2019 greenhouse gas emissions of 639,200 tonnes of CO2e.
DNO operates the Tawke licence containing Tawke and Peshkabir with a 75% interest, while partner Genel Energy holds the remaining interest.