Page 6 - LatAmOil Week 36 2022

LatAmOil MEXICO LatAmOil

Satellite data shows additional

methane leaks at Zaap in August

EUROPEAN researchers have gathered imagery that pointed to the release of more than
evidence of another large methane leak at 4,000 tonnes of methane, equivalent to 3% of
Ku-Maloob-Zaap, a cluster of oilfields operated Mexico’s annual carbon dioxide emissions, dur-
by Mexico’s national oil company (NOC) Pemex ing an “ultra-emission” event between Decem-
in the southern Gulf of Mexico off the coast of ber 8 and December 27.
Campeche state, Reuters has reported. Methane is often flared off during oil produc-
Itziar Irakulis-Loitxate, the head of a research tion operations to minimise harmful impact. It
team at the Polytechnic University of Valencia, is a key driver of climate change, as it is much
shared some of the data collected by satellite more powerful than at trapping heat than car-
with the news agency last week, saying that bon dioxide. However, it only lasts in the atmos-
methane leaks had been observed on six sepa- phere for around a decade. ™
rate days in August. The leaks occurred at the
Zaap field between August 5 and August 29
and resulted in the release of 44,064 tonnes of
methane, equivalent to 3.7mn tonnes of carbon
dioxide, she said.
Images of the leaks were taken by three Euro-
pean Space Agency (ESA) satellites, she added.
Irakulis-Loitxate did not comment on the
cause of the methane leaks, which she described
as an “ultra-emission.” Reuters commented,
though, that much of the production and
transportation infrastructure at the cluster
was believed to be less than ideal condition.
Ku-Maloob-Zaap has been in production since
1981, and many of the cluster’s platforms and
pipelines and other structures are ageing.
As of press time, neither Pemex nor the Sec-
retariat of Energy (SENER) had commented on
the Reuters report.
Mexico’s government has come under pres-
sure to reduce methane leaks since the publica-
tion of an ESA report in June on the discovery
that Pemex experienced more methane leaks
at Zaap last December. In that report, an ESA
research team led by Irakulis-Loitxate said it
had discovered the leak after viewing satellite Methane leaks at the Ku-Maloob-Zaap cluster on six days in August (Image: Pemex)

TRINIDAD & TOBAGO
BP subsidiary takes delivery

of jack-up rig offshore Trinidad

BP Trinidad and Tobago (bpTT), a subsidiary south-eastern coast of Trinidad next month.
of BP (UK), reported on September 5 that it In a statement, bpTT said that the rig had
had taken delivery of the Joe Douglas jack-up arrived at Chaguaramas on August 30 and
rig and was on track to launch a new drilling was now due to move to Mango, a field located
programme in the Columbus basin off the around 48 km from Galeota Point.

P6 www. NEWSBASE .com Week 36 08•September•2022