NEW DELHI, March 30? Even as the Assam gas cracker project is gasping for survival for want of gas the entire gas produced in neighbouring Arunachal Pradesh is being flared because of lack of consumers in the State. Taken aback at the peculiar situation, the Parliamentary Committee on Petroleum and Chemical has given Oil India Limited (OIL), which is flaring its gas in Arunachal Pradesh, three months? time to come up with a solution to resolve the problem. According to OIL?s estimate it is incurring a loss of around Rs 1 lakh daily due to such flaring. OIL produces 0.06 MMSCMD in Arunachal Pradesh. The gas was committed to Donyi Polo for a petrochemical project, but the project was abandoned recently.
Interestingly gas also continues to be flared in Assam, albeit in small quantities because of remote location of the wells with gas availability in very low pressure and small quantities without consumers in the vicinity. The much-awaited Reliance Assam Petrochemical Limited (RAPL) gas cracker project continues to be in doldrums because it is yet to clinch the Gas Supply Agreement (GSA) with Oil and Natural Gas Corporation ONGC. The hitch is the scarcity of gas in the State. This is despite the fact that ONGC annually flares 10.7 per cent of gas produced in its Eastern Regional Business Centre (ERBC) basin that covers the North East. Alarmed at the continued practice of flaring of gas, the Parliamentary Standing Committee in its report tabled in both the Houses last week, noted with concern that good quantity of gas is still being flared from the isolated structures in the oil fields of Assam and Arunachal Pradesh due to adverse techno-economics of gas transportation and through such flaring there is substantial financial loss.
The Committee also noticed that the onshore flaring in the fields of ONGC and Oil India Limited (OIL), is still at the higher range of 10 per cent of the total gas production,? it said, suggesting that ONGC and OIL should take all possible steps to reduce the gas flaring onshore area and bring it to the level of international standard of five per cent. Highly critical of the slow pace of gas flaring reduction schemes of ONGC and OIL the Committee recommended that they must complete these schemes within a fixed timeframe. Continuing, the Committee said it had observed a peculiar situation of gas flaring in the ONGC and OIL-operated fields where a huge quantity of gas from isolated and marginal fields is being flared due to fluctuation in consumer intake or lack of consumers. The Committee also noted that OIL is still flaring the whole quantity of gas produced in Arunachal Pradesh and in good quantity in upper Assam field. It recommended that OIL should take all possible initiatives to find the consumers for such gas so that this is gainfully utilised and not left for flaring. ?The Committee hoped that OIL will come up with some solution in three months? time?, the report said.
According to figures made available in the report, the total production of gas in OIL?s fields in Assam and Arunachal Pradesh in 1999-2000 was in the region of 4.35 MMSCMD out of which 10.4 per cent was flared. Flaring had come down by mere 1.5 per cent over the previous year flaring of 11.9 per cent, while in the 1990s OIL in Assam and Arunachal Pradesh has flared the highest per cent of 30.1 per cent in 1993-1994. OIL in the two states produces both associated and non-associated gas, which is supplied to various agencies in Assam including Namrup plant of the HFC, ASEB, Namrup, Assam Petrochemicals, NEEPCO Kathalguri, IOC (AOD) Digboi and various tea grids, besides utilising gas for internal use like power generation industrial field and LPG shrinkage, gas injection for pressure maintenance.
In its response to the Committee, OIL detailed the steps taken by it including commissioning of gas storage scheme, installation of low pressure booster compressors, connecting new fields into the gas pipeline network, installation of SCADA system for effective control of gas utilisation to reduce the gas flaring. It further argued that gas flaring as compared to the Eight ?Year Plan period when it was between 27 and 30 per cent, has come down to the level of 10 per cent. OIL has informed the Committee that it proposes to construct 22 km 400 mm gas pipeline from Hatiali to LPG off take at Duliajan, install a low pressure booster compressor at Kathaloni, besides de-bottlenecking of existing gas transportation lines in Dikom-Kathaloni route by way of loop lines among others.