OCD Permitting

NAPP2305284373 2023 MINOR I FLAR @ 0

General Incident Information


[fAPP2126637631] DIMENSION 6 CTB & CGL
[16696] OXY USA INC
Initial C-129 Accepted, Operator required to follow Monthly/Annual Waste Rule reporting requirements
Flare

Artesia
Minor

Eddy (15)

C-06-24S-29E      0 FNL      0 FEL
32.25122,-104.02444 NAD83


Notes

Industry Rep















Contact Details


Event Dates

02/06/2023
05:45 AM

02/06/2023
06:20 AM
2/21/2023

 

Incident Dates

Type Action Received Denied Approved
Initial C-129 Report [188984] 02/21/2023 02/21/2023
Notification [188984] 02/21/2023 02/21/2023

Compositional Analysis of Vented and/or Flared Natural Gas

Date Methane
(CH4) %
Nitrogen
(N2) %
Hydrogen Suffide
(H2S) PPM
Carbon Dioxide
(CO2) %
Oxygen
(O2) %
Natural Gas Analysis 02/21/2023 76 2 0 2 0

Incident Materials

Cause Source Material Volume Units
Unk. Released Recovered Lost
Other Other (Specify) Natural Gas Flared 120 0 120 Mcf
 
The concentration of dissolved chloride in the produced water >10,000 mg/l:           Yes           No        

Incident Events

Date Detail
02/21/2023 The (02/21/2023, C-129) application [188984] was assigned to this incident.
02/21/2023 Additional Details provided by the operator: Gas Flare Meter
02/21/2023 Corrective actions provided by the operator: Oxy is unable to take any corrective actions to eliminate the cause and potential reoccurrence of a downstream third-party owned and operated sales gas pipeline’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. Enterprise’s downstream facilities and associated facilities, may have issues which will reoccur from time to time and may trigger a spike in their gas line pressure, which in turn, directly impacts Oxy’s ability to send gas to them. When Enterprise has downstream activity issues or greatly struggles to handle the volume of gas being sent to them by Oxy, Enterprise then restricts Oxy’s ability to send gas, which then prompts Oxy to route all of its stranded gas not pushed into the Enterprise gas pipeline, to flare. 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 sales gas pipeline, when possible, during these types of circumstances.
02/21/2023 Primary Equipment identified by the operator (Other (Specify), with additional details: Emergency Flare > Third Party Downstream Activity > Enterprise > Emergency Shutdown)
02/21/2023 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 downstream pipeline operator, had an unplanned downstream compressor station shutdown, which then instigated a sudden and unexpected restrictions of gas flow intake of their sales gas pipeline, which in turn, prompted Oxy’s upstream facility to pressure up automatically and trigger flaring to occur. As soon as flaring was triggered, the facility’s mitigation optimizer cut 30,000 injection rates to wells in the field to reduce injection and sales gas. In addition, as soon as flaring alarms were received by field personnel, they began to shut-in several wells to assist with reducing field pressure so that it 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.
02/21/2023 New incident created by the operator, upon the submission of a flaring of natural gas report.
02/06/2023 The flaring of natural gas discovered by the operator.

Incident Severity
Major release as defined by 19.15.29.7(A) NMAC?
Yes No

Incident Corrective Actions






Orders No Orders Found


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