Achieving Greenhouse Gas Emission Reduction Through Operation Excellence Program in Mature Offshore Oil Fields

Abstract Greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from mature oil and gas fields constitute a significant portion of the industry's overall emissions. While these mature fields possess substantial reduction potential, implementation of improvement action is often challenging due to various constraints related to aging assets as well as complexity in production and operation management. This challenge is further amplified for remote offshore fields, where access to solutions is limited. This paper presents a case study on how a local oil company's operating mature offshore oil fields in Vietnam successfully reduced its GHG emissions against its annual target while maintaining stable operations and production through a unique Operational Excellence (OE) program. It also aims to share lessons and insights to support similar operators of mature oil fields in overcoming challenges related to GHG emission reduction. Driven by the Corporate's 2040 net-zero emissions target, the Company proactively conducted the Operational Excellence Benchmarking Program [1]. This work aimed at finding opportunities for enhancement of production sustainability and operations’ efficiency, of which GHG emission is a great significance. As a result of the benchmarking, a number of improvement opportunities were identified and ranked based on the company's business goals and its strategic priorities. Regarding GHG emission reduction, the key initiatives, which have been being implemented, include (1) centralizing operation data for visualization and analysis, (2) improving facility maintenance with risk-based inspection and prescriptive maintenance approaches, (3) optimizing compressor gas volumes through surface network modeling and field trials, and (4) conducting routine flare and leakage assessments. These initiatives effectively contributed to the achievement of the GHG emission reduction along with stable oil production in the Company's mature offshore oil fields.