OREANDA-NEWS. Board directors at Gazprom Neft have reviewed the company's performance in the production and usage of associated petroleum gas (APG) throughout 2013, with a view to further reducing the flaring (burning) of APG. The review comes as part of the company's forecast of anticipated supplies of dry-stripped gas into the country's gas distribution network to 2016.

Associated petroleum gas utilisation rates at Gazprom Neft remain among the highest in the industry, despite consistent annual increases in hydrocarbon production, with the company increasing its APG utilisation to 80 percent in 2013, a 1.6-fold increase on four years ago.

These achievements are the result of several major investment initiatives, undertaken jointly with gas processing and petrochemicals company SIBUR, including the construction of a compressor station at the Yuzhno-Priobsky field, Khanty-Mansi Autonomous Area, and completion of the first phase of an integrated APG utilisation facility at the Vyngapurovskaya fields, Noyabrsk, involving the installation of new infrastructure to facilitate the transportation of additional volumes of APG.

Compressor station, Yuzhno-Priobsky field

Work is also continuing on further improving APG utilisation, including the construction of a new gas processing plant at the Yuzhno-Priobskaya compressor station (begun late 2013), which will allow utilisation of APG to increase to 900 million cubic metres per year.

The Noyabrsk project involves the construction of a compressor station at the Yety-Purovskoye field, expected to go into production in 2016, which will allow APG utilisation by developer Gazpromneft Muravlenko to exceed 95 percent: a figure expected to remain constant, despite planned increases in APG production at the facility.

Other projects for better APG utilisation include the construction of a compressor station at Myldzhinsk, Tomsk Oblast, expected to come on stream in 2016, after which utilisation of gas at the Shinginsk and Luginetsk fields is expected to reach 95 percent.

Gazprom Neft continues to expand transportation capacity at its facilities in the Orenburg region, in order to facilitate the delivery of greater volumes to its Orenburg Gas Processing Plant: synchronising plans with those of Gazprom Dobycha Orenburg will ensure the company is fully prepared for increased production from its licensed reserves in the region.

Implementation of these projects will ensure Gazprom Neft's utilisation of APG remains in excess of 90 percent from 2016.

The Board of Directors at Gazprom Neft also considered a report on the activities of the company's Internal Audit Department in 2013. Following completion of 48 separate audits, management throughout the company have been able to identify a number of initiatives to improve ongoing operations and future investment activities in various sectors of the business.

In addition to this, work under the company's integrated risk management system has been focused primarily on the integration of risk analysis with project management and the wider business planning process.