Project description

There is limited knowledge about the scale and characteristics of the oil and gas sector methane emissions outside of North America. It is widely agreed that this represents a major barrier to the development of methane emission reduction strategies. This paper presents the results of a project to improve the knowledge on methane emissions and emission reduction opportunities in an important oil and gas producing country: Kazakhstan. The analysis is based on extensive Kazakh-specific data, derived from (i) the results of measurement campaigns in upstream and midstream facilities and (ii) the answers in response to a questionnaire covering current practices and equipment count.

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Overall, the analysis estimates methane emissions in the upstream and midstream sectors in Kazakhstan at 6.6 million tons of CO2 equivalent (MtCO2e) or about 12.7 billion cubic feet of methane per year. At least 1.6 million tons of CO2 equivalent each year can be reduced at a negative abatement cost (i.e. the savings from the gas recovered exceed the project’s implementation costs).

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