ConocoPhillips, the US’s largest oil and gas producer, says it has used technological advances and other means to cut the company’s annual greenhouse gas emissions in half. In the last few years, the Houston-based company has reaped benefits by capturing more gas and selling it.
That was made possible by three strategies, company officials say — improving plunger lift operations and compressor equipment, replacing chemical pumps with solar-powered pumps and retrofitting well site facilities with “low-bleed” pneumatic devices that intermittently emit gas to open and close valves and power other functions.
ConocoPhillips’ spokeswoman, Davy Kong said the company recently completed its program to replace high-emission controllers with “low-bleed” models that emit less greenhouse gas. Since 2011, about 6,000 high-bleed devices — with emissions of greater than six standard cubic feet per hour, or scfh — have been replaced with low-bleed devices — emissions of less than or equal to six scfh — at the company’s San Juan Basin well sites.