We have worked with the Oil & Gas Industry since 1985, building a complex product that plays a simple role. The Fluenta 160 Flare Gas Meter measures the volume of natural gas being flared on oil and gas sites. Our products are robust, reliable and accurate, supporting customers with: measurement of flare gas; monitoring flow of gas; environmental and regulatory compliance.
Why flare gas?
A gas flare – or flare stack – is a gas combustion device used in industrial plants to burn off natural gas. There are a number of reasons for gas flaring:
- Safety: By burning excess natural gas, flaring protects against the dangers of over-pressuring industrial equipment.
- Disposal: Typically, when there are large volumes of hydrogen sulphide in natural gas, it cannot be safely extracted. To dispose of this gas, it is burned off. When the gas is burned, the hydrogen is converted into water and the sulphur becomes sulphur dioxide.
- Remote locations: When petroleum crude oil is extracted and produced from onshore or offshore oil wells, natural gas associated with the oil is also brought to the surface. If companies do not have the infrastructure in place to capture natural gas and safely transport it – such as when oil rigs are in deep waters – it is often flared.
- Economics: Natural gas costs more than oil to produce on an energy-equivalent basis. For this reason drillers are searching for oil, not gas, and companies are reluctant to invest in costly projects to capture and transport natural gas from oil wells to the market.
The flaring effect
As necessary as gas flaring can be, the process wastes a natural resource that could be put to productive use or conserved (by reinjecting it into the ground). If the 147 Billion Cubic meters (BCM) of gas flared globally was used for power generation it could provide about 750 billion kWh of electricity – more than the African continent’s annual electricity consumption.
In addition to the energy being wasted, the gas flaring process also emits C02. A number of energy initiatives are putting the pressure on oil and gas companies to restrict the amount of natural gas they choose to flare. Zero Routine Flaring by 2030 – a global initiative to end routine gas flaring – has now been endorsed by 62 oil companies, governments and development institutions.
Taking a measured approach
Fluenta’s expertise is flare gas measurement – both hot and cold flaring (venting) – with ultrasonic technology, the most accurate means to measure flow. Fluenta’s product portfolio of flare gas meters includes a range of transducers for almost any measurement scenario – ensuring even gas sites in hostile or offshore environments can track flare gas operations.
With Fluenta’s 160 Flare Gas Meter, companies can keep track of the amount of gas they are flaring to ensure natural gas is being flared appropriately, safely and only when necessary.
