Measuring upstream and downstream gas flaring from space at nighttime with

VIIRS NightfireM. Zhizhin1, C. Elvidge1, Feng Chi-Hsu1, T. Ghosh1, and A. Matveev2

1Earth Observation Group, Payne Institute, Colorado School of Minew

2Space Research Institute, Russian Acad. Sci.

MZhizhin@mines.edu

Presentation outline

• How to detect gas flares

• How to measure flared volume

• Spatial distribution of flares

• Temporal variations in flaring

• Open research

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Wavelength (μm)

M13 M14 M15 M16M12M11DNB

M7 M8

Hotpsot1800 K

Hotpsot800 K

M10

VIIRS M-band spatial resolution is 750m at nadirNighttime collection of channel M11 began in Dec 2017

Suomi NPP / VIIRS data is available from March 2012 – presentNOAA-20 (JPSS-1) / VIIRS data collected from June 2018

VIIRS Nightfire (VNF) A global fire product created from nighttime multispectral satellite data

Flare in Algeria: VNF 2019-05-19T = 1674 K, S = 8.4 m2, RH = 3.7 mW

VIIRS cloud-free coverage for Saudi Arabia

Apparent low numbers above large gas flares

Temperature vs Source Area for VNF from January 2018Overlayed are detection limit lines for VIIRS spectral bands

Watershed algorithm to define cluster boundaries

Chain of gas flares in Basra, Iraq

Draw contours around watershed features and find their center of mass on 15 arc sec grid with VNF detection counts > 3 where T > 1200 K

Tagging of VNF clusters against high-resolution daytime imagery

Upstream flare Downstream refinery Downstream LNG

Industrial site Landfill Volcano

Flare design and gas composition effects

Upstream flare temperatures vary with geographical region and oil-gas fields

Left plot shows flare T distributions by region. Highest average temperature is observed in the US, lowest in North Africs

Right plot shows difference in flare T for oil and gas fields in Russia

CEDIGAZ CalibrationSum of flare “radiant heat “ RH’ = T4 x SD (no clouds) in proportion to the percent of detections (PCT). Here D = 0.7 is nonlinear correction factor, S is surface area.

Flared volume is given by the Regression Through the Origin (RTO) relating the CEDIGAZ reported country level BCM and RH’

Flared Volume = Slope × RH’.

The 95 % confidence interval for the RTO slope are

Slope = 0.0294 ± 0.0017

For RTO the prediction interval varies in a narrow range 3 - 3.5 BCM for the full range of the observed RH’ from 0 to 700.

CEDIGAZ, http://www.cedigaz.org/

+/- 3.3 BCM prediction error

Post-calibration CEDIGAZ updates

Relation of oil production and flaring

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2018

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R² ≈ 0.84

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Oil produced (Irkutstat), million metric tons

An example of strong correlation R² = 0.84 between oil production levels and Nightfire flaring estimates in Irkutsk Oblast, Russia. Although the oil production in the region has doubled during the observation period, no major APG refining facilities were connected with the oil fields which led to steady increase in the on-site gas flaring. Lack of the refining facilities is probably the reason of regression through the origin resulting into a strong correlation between the two variables.

Tulsa experiment with 36 test flares

Natural GasSupply

VolumeTank

Fuel pressure,temperature andflow rate meter

Flare tipNear field multipoint photo, videoradiometer and spectrometer

Sky view visible and infrared cameras

Ambient pressure,temperature and

wind meter

VIIRS satellite

FlareVolumetank

50m

Testpost

John Zink LLC, Tulsa OK

Large flare 2018-01-12 07:12 UTC VNF: T = 1795 K, S = 64 m2, RH = 38 mW

Flowrate 77766.9 lb/hour ~ 0.43 BCM/yearSatellite zenith angle 66.76 deg (side view)

New flared gas volume calibration

Preliminary results from the Tulsa experiment

• Correlation between flow rate and satellite observation of flare radiative heat R2 > 0.95

• Sensitivity of the flare detector is at 0.005 BCM/y or 750 lb/hr flow rate

• For the range of flare sizes from 0.005 … 0.5 BCM/y the difference in CEDIGAZ and Tulsa calibration is within 10%

• The error bars for flared gas volume estimates will drop from +/- 3.1 BCM to +/- 0.05 BCM using the Tulsa calibration

• Most of the flares were detected in multiple pixels

• Flare shape depends on flow rate

• Calibration error is season dependent, larger in summer

Flare dashboardTime series of instant measurements of flare brightness, temperature and flow rate.Color legend depicts clear and cloudy observations and interpolated values, if Planck curve was not fitted

Accidental flaringAccording to the main Russian news outlet, an emergency event took place at the major Lokovskiy GPP of the Lukoil company in Khanty-Mansi region (KhMAO) in the middle 2016 resulting in complete facility shutdown for six month which probably led to the increase of on-site gas flaring in the connected oil fields. Four men were injured.TASS 29.06.2016 https://tass.ru/proisshestviya/3415135

Summer gaps in polar regions Summer gaps in polar regions

Gas processing effectThe Vankor gas utilization program by ROSNEFT has built in Apr. 2014 a 108 km long gas pipeline, low and high pressure compressor stations, gas treatment units. In 2015, supplies to the Russian Unified Gas System reached the design level of 5.8 BCM/yr. The APG utilization rate was over 95%https://www.rosneft.ru/press/news/item/198019/

95% utilization = 5.8 BCM / year61%<1%

Seasonal variations in flaring, USA: ~10%

COVID-19 effect on flaring

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Flar

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Russia USA

Thank you!