Actions to reduce in-house gas consumption have resulted in a significant decrease in GHG emissions. The story behind the initiatives and the figures that bear out its success.

The opportunity could be staring you in the face—even if it means changing your perspective or sharpening your vision to spot it. World Energy Saving Day, commemorated every October 21 to highlight the need for responsible consumption, takes different forms in each area of Tecpetrol. And today, the Operations at El Tordillo have their own story to tell about the work originally designed to reduce in-house gas consumption in the field which ended up producing a bonus—a significant reduction in greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions.

"The team in Operations identified a number of opportunities for improvement and implemented a range of initiatives to make energy generation more efficient, thus increasing the availability of gas for sale," explained Lucía Pujana, who is the HSE Manager at the San Jorge Gulf as she talks to Tecpetrol Hoy. “When we took a look at these initiatives from an environmental point of view, we were able to identify even more positive effects: we benchmarked the reduction of emissions at our various projects and when we added the results together, we saw that in fact, the impact was highly significant,” she added.

The approach taken meant that it was possible to reduce consumption on several fronts. For instance, they were able to replace the generators producing most of the electricity consumed by El Tordillo (14.2 Mwh of the total 14.7 Mwh) with more efficient equipment consuming less fuel. This exercise recorded gas savings of 10,000 m³/d, which, when extrapolated, shows that in just one year, they will have achieved a reduction of 7,066.4 tCO₂eq/year in carbon dioxide emissions.

Another energy saving initiative was about optimizing the gas compressors—the step prior to sale—which reduced gas consumption by 9,000 m³/d, (a decrease of 6,359 tCO₂eq/year). In order to achieve this reduction, the team analyzed the numbers and detected deviations in actual consumption in relation to what was expected, enabling them to adjust carburization factors and eliminate any leaks by making timely repairs.

A new machine was acquired for the compression section that can be maintained without the need for venting; valves were repaired to minimize leaks and work was carried out to relieve pressure at several stations, leading to savings of 14,000 m³/d of gas and a reduction of 9892.96 tCO₂eq/year of emissions. Pressure in the storage tanks was adjusted contributing further savings of 1,000 m³/d, the equivalent of 706.64 tCO₂eq/year.

The project is extremely promising as a reference model: by August 2023, the greenhouse gases released into the atmosphere from the operation’s own consumption had been reduced by 21%. "This is a work in progress, El Tordillo will continue to research proposals aimed at achieving greater efficiency and reducing consumption and emissions," concluded Pujana. An initiative that prompts reflection about the opportunities for improvement in each sector.