| 02/13/2023 |
The (02/13/2023, C-129) application [185722] was assigned to this incident. |
| 02/13/2023 |
Additional Details provided by the operator: Gas Flare Meter |
| 02/13/2023 |
Corrective actions provided by the operator: Oxy cannot take any corrective actions to eliminate the cause and potential reoccurrence of a third-party owned and operated compressor station’s sudden and unexpected gas flow intake restriction or shut-in, as this control issue is downstream of Oxy’s custody transfer point and out of Oxy’s control to foresee, avoid, prevent from happening or reoccur. Third-party downstream gas plant or compression station owner operators may have equipment issues, which will reoccur from time to time, which in turn, directly impacts Oxy’s ability to send its sales gas to them, and potentially triggering a flaring event. OXY makes every effort to control and minimize emissions as much as possible. The only actions that Oxy can take and handle that is within its control, is to continually communicate with Enterprise personnel, who own and operate the pipeline and their gas plants, when possible, during these types of circumstances. |
| 02/13/2023 |
Primary Equipment identified by the operator (Other (Specify), with additional details: Emergency Flare > Third Party Downstream Activity > Enterprise > Emergency Shutdown) |
| 02/13/2023 |
Steps taken to prevent waste provided by the operator: It is OXY's policy to route its stranded gas to a flare during an unforeseen and unavoidable emergency or malfunction, that is beyond Oxy's control to avoid, prevent or foresee, to minimize emissions as much as possible as part of the overall steps taken to limit duration and magnitude of flaring. The flare at this facility has a 98% combustion efficiency to lessen emissions as much as possible. In this case, Enterprise, third party owned and operated, had unplanned downstream compressor station shutdown, on two (2) separate occasions, which then instigated sudden and unexpected restrictions of gas flow intake by their own Enterprise pipeline, which in turn, prompted Oxy’s upstream facility to pressure up automatically and trigger flaring events to occur. The first flaring event occurred approximately 07:50 AM and ended 20 minutes later. The second flaring event occurred later in the afternoon, approximately 04:55 PM, and ended 15 minutes later. On both occasions, as soon as the Oxy production tech, who was on-site, saw flaring occur, he began to make phone calls to Enterprise personnel to determine cause of the gas flow intake restrictions, which triggered flaring. The Oxy production tech then contacted Oxy’s flowback personnel to begin making choke changes, so that field pressure would stay below the flare trigger setpoints of the CTB to cease flaring. This event is out of OXY's control, yet OXY made every effort to control and minimize emissions as much as possible. |
| 02/13/2023 |
New incident created by the operator, upon the submission of a flaring of natural gas report. |
| 01/24/2023 |
The flaring of natural gas discovered by the operator. |