Mexico’s Pemex has increased gas flaring in the upper field despite a promise to stop – #Mexicos #Pemex #increased #gas #flaring #upper #field #promise #stop

TIERRA BLANCA, Mexico, Feb 28 (Reuters) – State oil company Pemex pledged late last year to stop flaring natural gas from a large field in southeastern Mexico by mid-January amid mounting pressure to improve the environment.

But satellite data – analyzed exclusively for Reuters by scientists – as well as a site visit by reporters – show that gas flaring from the vast Ixachi field in Veracruz state is not only continuing, but increasing.

According to satellite data, january about 1.3 out of four torches in Papan and Perdiz factories billion cubic feet gas burned, according to satellite data, on November 1, when promised billion was cubic feet.

Satellite images showed the largest increase in flaring at the Papan plant.

Mikhail Jizhin, a researcher with the Earth Observation Group at the Payne Institute of Public Policy, Colorado School of Mines, told Reuters,January There is an increase in flares for the two largest flares per month.”

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Jizhin said a preliminary assessment of recent satellite images showed the flares were still active last week.

Pemex, Ministry of Energy and the president office did not respond to requests for comment. The hydrocarbon regulator declined to comment.

Reuters reported last year that Pemex, the world’s most indebted oil producer, the president Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador has ramped up environmentally-damaging flaring to meet Obrador’s ambitious production target of 2 million barrels a day – 12% from current levels.

The promise to stop flaring gas at the Ixachi field has angered hydrocarbon regulators, environmentalists and Mexico’s most important trading partner. USAIt came after months of pressure to burn him at the torch.

Pemex has repeatedly promised to lower flaring rates and eventually meet limits set by the regulator, saying its environmental record also puts access to financing at risk.

However, two sources at Pemex and the Energy Ministry said no significant steps have been taken to stop flaring at Ixachi since last year’s promise. Two sources at Mexico’s energy regulator and three other sources said the Nov. 18 promise to process the gas instead of flaring it is unrealistic because the infrastructure at the Papan and Perdiz plants is incomplete and they don’t have enough capacity to handle large amounts of gas.

The infrastructure investments needed to process the gas into a form suitable for distribution take a long time. The process includes facilities to remove pollutants and separate the gas into various components, as well as storage and transportation infrastructure.

When Reuters visited the site of the plants on the outskirts of Tierra Blanca in mid-February, a month after a deadline set by Pemex ( PEMX.UL ), four giant flares were burning. One of the torches on the papan – a yellow flame on top of a thin, tall tower – approx 10 visible from a distance of kilometers (6 miles).

Two other sources at the Perdiz-affiliated Papan plant said both units were operating well below their planned capacity and were flaring most of the gas instead of processing it. The sources spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the media.

5 local residents who live and work nearby said that the torches are burning almost constantly.

Flaring not only releases harmful greenhouse gases that contribute to climate change, but also USAIt wastes a valuable resource that could help reduce imports that cost more than

IT STILL WORKS

Pemex CEO Octavio Romero on November 18 video 300 million cubic feet per day instead of flaring the company’s Ixachi by sharing a message gas promised to start processing.

In a video shared on Twitter, Romero and other executives from Pemex, which developed the Papan plant, and contractor Nuvoil stood at the facility in hard hats and explained how they would stop flaring by January 15.

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Nuvoil did not respond to a request for comment.

López Obrador spent a large part of his inheritance to revive Pemex, once a powerful symbol of energy self-sufficiency.

Production of Pemex 20 Although it is about half of its level a year ago, it remains the largest contributor to the state coffers in a country where millions of people live in poverty.

2018In , López Obrador hailed Ixhaci as the greatest energy discovery of decades. But Pemex gas has repeatedly missed production targets and blamed it on missing infrastructure.

In November last year, two senior company sources told Reuters that Pemex would prefer to pay a fine rather than deal with its gas flaring problems.

Three sources at the regulator familiar with the confidential development plans for Ixachi said the plans call for infrastructure to capture, process and transport or store the gas 2020should have existed until

But the company opted instead to produce a very light crude oil-like condensate buried in rock seams along with the gas. Unlike gas, Pemex counts condensate toward a production target of 2 million barrels per day.

This resulted in excessive flaring of the gas that came to the surface at the same time as the condensate, as the adjacent plants did not have the necessary infrastructure and the ability to store the gas in raw form.

Completing the infrastructure would mean a temporary halt in condensate production, putting Pemex further ahead of the president’s production target, according to sources at Pemex, the energy ministry and the regulator.

Pemex’s updated business plan for 2023-2027, released in December, reiterated pledges to cut emissions but focused more on oil and gas production as well as refining.

In August 2022, the regulator at Ixachi field after at least two fines for mismanagement law documented the violation and found Pemex in breach of its development obligations.

Reporting by Stefanie Eschenbacher in Tierra Blanca, Mexico Additional by Raquel Cunha and Alberto Fajardo report Edited by Stephen Eisenhammer and Claudia Parsons

Our standards: Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

2023-03-01 06:10:39
Source – reuters

Translation“24 HOURS”