COMPONENT ON TECHNOLOGY DEMONSTRATION AND EVALUATION FOR THE
RECOVERY OF HYDROCARBON LIQUIDS
Backgrounder
Issue
Black carbon (BC) formation during flaring is highly correlated to the presence of
heavier than methane, volatile organic compounds (VOC) such as propane, butane or
pentane, which are readily condensable as liquids and could be produced as energy
commodities for local, regional or global markets.
Nationally Appropriate Mitigation Actions (NAMA)
From 2011-13, PEMEX (Mexico) and Ecopetrol (Colombia), in collaboration with their
environmental and energy ministries, completed the first phase of Nationally
Appropriate Mitigation Actions (NAMA) within their facilities with the objective of
identifying cost effective and highly replicable opportunities to reduce emissions and
increase hydrocarbon recovery in their respective oil and gas sectors.
Nationally Appropriate Mitigation Actions (NAMAs) are a United Nations Climate
Change mechanism that could take the form of policies, programs and actions that
developing countries could undertake to reduce GHG emissions through
implementation at the local, national, or global levels.
The NAMA projects produced rigorous mitigation and business plans to support efficient
methane conservation and carbon dioxide and black carbon emissions reductions by
recovering high value liquids from flare streams.
NAMA results from PEMEX and ECOPETROL, which could be replicated in other
developed and developing countries, also identified significant opportunities to reduce
SLCP emissions and avoid millions of dollars in annual energy and product losses from
oil and gas production.
The NAMA project’s approach to SLCP reduction activities in the oil and gas sector is
an example of how public-private cooperation can improve the diffusion of existing
technologies and introduce new technologies that could bolster existing efforts on nearterm climate change and related public health, food and energy security, and
environmental issues.
Technology Demonstration Project
In April 2013, the CCAC approved $1M in funding to support collaboration with key
public and private sector stakeholders to reduce methane and black carbon emissions
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from venting, leakage, and flaring of natural gas from operations worldwide by
developing an increased global capacity for SLCP reductions.
The project aims to demonstrate that technologies and practices could credibly and
verifiably mitigate black carbon emissions by reducing or eliminating the loss of these
readily condensable and marketable quantities of liquid hydrocarbons, into flare
streams.
CCAC funding will finance technological demonstrations and related activities, in
partnership with oil and gas companies, which will demonstrate how emissions of BC
and other SLCPs can be minimized or eliminated in a cost-neutral and sometimes
profitable way.
The following activities will be pursued:

Measurement, mapping and monitoring to identify where venting and flaring of
VOC-rich natural gas occurs, with a view to identifying economic opportunities to
reduce SLCP emissions as well as to develop policy tools.

Targeted demonstration projects to stimulate the commercial deployment of
emerging technologies to reduce SLCPs by reducing venting and flaring.
POINTS TO NOTE

The CCAC’s results-based approach to SLCP emission reduction projects
and could complement the work of existing international clean energy
partnerships in addition to scaling-up public-private collaboration and
investment.

The projected reductions in SLCPs emissions have the potential to realize
significant and measureable environmental, health and social co-benefits,
which support the CCAC’s role as a transformative catalyst of change in
the oil and gas sector.

The project also supports the scaled up commercial deployment and
dissemination of emerging leading-edge technologies for hydrocarbon
liquid recovery that would otherwise not be exploited due to the use of
conventional equipment and a limited understanding of the field.
Partners: the World Bank’s Global Gas Flaring Reduction Initiative (GGFR),
International Cryosphere Climate Initiative, Carleton University, Petroleum Technology
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Alliance of Canada (PTAC), Further by Design, and Stockholm Environmental Institute
(SEI).
To find out more: Contact Philip Swanson at the CCAC Secretariat (philip.swanson.affiliate@unep.com)
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