Publications

The oil and gas drilling industry contributes to the release of greenhouse gases (GHG), especially carbon emissions from the combustion of fuel, and waste from its activities. It is rare to measure the quantity of these emissions. Going forward, it may become a legislative requirement to do so. This paper provides several approaches to measure and reduce carbon emissions from drilling activities to support the Glasgow Climate Pact at COP26 in November 2021 to keep alive the hope of limiting the rise in global temperature to 1.5˚C. Carbon emissions are analyzed based on the API Compendium of Greenhouse Gas Emission Methodologies for The Oil and Natural Gas Industry, 2009. The authors provide practical equations to implement in offshore drilling activities and establish workflows to estimate carbon emission of CO2, N2O and CH4 from stationary combustion of rig engines and from marine vessels. Supported by SANGEA Software (SANGEA™ is a GHG emissions calculation tool owned by the American Petroleum Institute), total carbon emissions for Field X from jack up rig operations from September 2021 until March 2022 was calculated at 2,328 tons CO2e/ month, and total emissions from production and drilling operations was calculated at 8,791 tons CO2e/ month. Appreciating the significant ± 26% carbon emissions contribution from drilling activities will drive improved well engineering, operations optimization, fuel efficiency and low carbon footprint utilization through digitalization/automation. Unrecorded emissions from vented sources (well testing, completion and unloading) and indirect emissions controlled by other parties such as land transportation, helicopters and electricity imports in workshops will be part of the discussion. Additionally, this paper proposes administrative workflows to support the initiative through frequent fuel consumption records and through development of a roadmap to reduce carbon emissions from continuous drilling campaigns. The novelty of this paper is focusing on offshore drilling activities to abate carbon emissions in jack up rig operations. Knowing the portion and magnitude of carbon emissions from drilling activities will drive efforts to reduce carbon emissions and to support Net Zero Carbon Emission aspirations in the oil and gas industry.