Saneg first in Central Asia to register methane emissions project for trading
Uzbekistan’s largest private oil and gas player Saneg has become the first company in Central Asia to register a programme to cut methane emissions at its production assets, with Germany’s Emissions Trading Authority.
The company has just finished the first phase of major technical upgrades to its infrastructure, curbing methane emissions by over 83,000 tonnes of CO2 equivalent annually, it said on May 15. This emissions saving is equivalent to taking around 20,000 vehicles off the road, company founder Bakhtiyor Fazilov said.
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“We have achieved much but there is always room for improvement, and we are targeting further gains before the end of 2024.”
Saneg carried out the work as part of a joint decarbonisation project with Switzerland’s VEMA and Norway’s ICA-Finance that involved advanced leak detection and repair (LDAR). All three partners funded the initiative, which was developed under the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) methodology created by the European Fuel Quality Directive (FQD).
Leaks were discovered and repaired at 200 objects across Saneg’s assets in Karshi, Mubarek and Andijan, using modern analytical systems and drones. Through further initiatives, the company expects to cut its greenhouse gas emissions by a further 410,000 tonnes of CO2 equivalent annually by year-end.
Saneg accounts for four-fifths of oil and 5% of gas produced in Uzbekistan, having been handed licences to 103 previously state-managed oilfields in 2019 as part of a push by the government to reverse output decline.
VEMA develops projects to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and introduce energy efficiency technologies, while ICA-Finance manages CDM and upstream emission reduction (UER) projects, partnering with national and private oil and gas companies.