KOC recently received commendation from the World Bank for its efforts at reducing gas flaring within the Company’s scope of operations. KOC officials maintained that this new recognition for its efforts reflects KOC’s international standing as a socially responsible company that upholds the valuable contributions of its employees toward environmental responsibility. The recent article released by the World Bank on its website entitled “Gas Utilization in Kuwait Reaps Economic and Environmental Benefits” praised KOC’s success in using nearly 99% of associated gas for production.
The article raised the following question: What happens when one of the world’s wealthiest nations with abundant oil reserves lacks enough electricity to power its demand? The answer maintains that it should use an underutilized, readily available resource sitting right under its feet. The article went on to say that since 2008, Kuwait has been a net importer of natural gas, consuming more than it produces and struggling to keep up with growing domestic demand for electricity. It also maintained that KOC recognized there were solutions that could partially solve the growing gas deficit, and that the Company developed a comprehensive strategy to maximize domestic gas utilization. A key component of that strategy has been capturing associated gas, instead of wastefully releasing and flaring it during oil production.
The World Bank article emphasized that KOC, which represents the country in the World Bank-led Global Gas Flaring Reduction Partnership (GGFR), knew that effective gas management was a key objective for the Company in order to optimize the utilization of a valuable resource and reduce its environmental impact. The mission is to reduce gas flaring to less than 1% of total production by 2017.
To achieve this target, the article added that KOC conducted thorough, periodic reviews of the gas value chain from producing wells to end users in order to identify all sources of waste or potential optimization. Results are monitored at the highest management levels. All of the Company’s staff is involved and committed to this objective, which stands high on their Key Performance Indicators list.
KOC’s Gas Operations Group Manager, Mohammed Al-Zuabi, was quoted in the article as saying, “We are strongly committed to creating a healthier environment, and we have dramatically reduced gas flaring,” adding, “We remain steadfast to further reduce flaring to as low as possible, and I firmly believe this task was only possible because of the complete change in the employees’ mindset towards better understanding the environmental consequences of gas flaring and preserving a very valuable resource.”
The article then identified KOC’s successful gas flaring reduction campaign as a result of several key factors, mainly a solid commitment from all levels of the Company to make flare reduction a priority, significant financial investments in state-of-the-art facilities and operations, close cooperation within KOC departments and with downstream companies and customers in order to adapt to any unforeseen situations and limit the duration of flaring, and a close, productive partnership with GGFR and other organizations to achieve the stated targets.
The World Bank article concluded that KOC is still actively engaged in gas flaring reduction projects, striving to achieve a “Lowest Technical Limit” objective, and working with GGFR on this objective. Top management at the Company constitutes a task force team to continue looking for solutions and develop a roadmap and flare reduction action plan.