You may have heard that time is money, but few industrial sectors feel this so acutely as the oil and gas industry. Operators take great care to maximize equipment efficiency and site production, making downtime rather unappealing. The losses of downtime coupled with the cost of labor and materials can make upgrades at any scale a daunting endeavor. So, when one major United States energy company sought to alter sites across an entire state, they chose Cordova Methane Control’s patented VentHawk to help achieve this massive undertaking in record time.
Regulatory Drivers
Recent years have seen unprecedented regulatory changes in the oil and gas industry with process controllers (formerly pneumatic controllers) at the forefront of these regulations. Process controllers are essential to production automation. In fact, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) reports the majority of process controllers currently employed throughout the oil and gas industry are powered by natural gas. Whether they are designed as intermittent or continuous bleed controllers, every natural gas-driven pneumatic controller contributes to greenhouse gas emissions.
Considering recent, significant regulatory changes like the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) and Quad 0b/c, these common pieces of equipment are subject to higher standards that all operators are compelled to meet. Operators who fail to achieve reporting and emissions compliance will be subject to fines reflecting the severity of their offense.
Following the passage of the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) and its upgrades to the Clean Air Act (CAA), the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has been authorized to impose a waste emissions charge to penalize facilities exceeding allowable limits of greenhouse gas emissions.
While those who exceed their allowable limits are afforded a few years to reach compliance, this company chose to tackle their emissions proactively to minimize the risk of future fines by implementing Cordova Methane Control’s patented VentHawk system. The VentHawk provides a technological intervention designed to convert emitting controllers into closed vent systems by routing pneumatic controllers to the VentHawk.
Operator Considerations & Choosing Cordova Methane Controls’ VentHawk
The aforementioned company chose to upgrade production sites across the state of Wyoming. While the Cowboy State is well known for its natural beauty, Wyoming’s location and year-round climate posed several hurdles to compliance efforts. Electricity is rare among remote production sites and the state’s harsh winters are not suited to sustaining solar-powered solutions. However, the ease of installation and versatility of the VentHawk system allowed for it to be used on multiple setups.
The VentHawk is a pneumatic vent gas capture and utilization system that helps operators achieve zero-emissions compliance with their existing equipment. The system routes exhaust gases from a level controller/dump valve, high/low controller/dump valve, or pneumatic temperature controller to VentHawk, and it directs the gas to the pilot line of the separator’s burner system for clean utilization. The VentHawk does not require electricity, and each unit is designed to accommodate up to eight vent gas inputs, maximizing site coverage while minimizing equipment costs.
Installation Process & Projections
Over the course of only seven months beginning in August 2023, more than 900 of the company’s locations were outfitted with Cordova’s VentHawk which equates to over 4,000 pneumatic controllers now in compliance. Supply chain issues were not a problem for this project as Cordova was able to continue to supply all other customer’s orders during 2023 without interruption, regardless of order size. Thanks to its straightforward design, the company’s operators installed the VentHawks themselves. This minimized downtime and labor costs. Cordova personnel visited various areas of the company’s assets and spent time training the operators in each area on how to install the VentHawk. Because each area’s operators were specifically trained with their own equipment, they all now have the experience to troubleshoot and solve any potential problems. As such, specialized personnel are not required. Separators, tank heaters, and line heaters across the state are now in compliance with federal zero-emissions standards at minimal cost. As new sites continue to be drilled and come online, the company continues to reorder VentHawks to achieve compliance with new process standards. Overall, implementation of the VentHawk system will save the company hundreds of thousands, or potentially millions of dollars, in fines related to the IRA and Quad 0 b/c regulations each year. Implementation of the VentHawk system will bring the company into compliance while exceeding its environmental compliance timeline.
As energy companies continue to look for solutions to help reduce emissions from the production process, Cordova’s VentHawk economically equips exploration and production companies in the United States to meet regulatory requirements as well as environmental, social, and governance goals.
For additional information please contact Cordova sales team member, Tim Westmoreland.
