Alberta Methane Emissions Program (AMEP)

The Alberta Methane Emissions Program is a three-year initiative with a total budget of $17.6 million that is financed by the Government of Alberta through the Technology Innovation and Emissions Reduction (TIER) fund. The goal of the program is to encourage reductions in methane emissions.

The goal of the initiative is to enable reductions in methane emissions in the oil and gas industry in Alberta, while also supporting government regulation modifications, decreasing costs to industry, and ensuring best practices related methane detection and management. The Technology Innovation and Emissions Reduction (TIER) Fund of Alberta provides funding for the AMEP program, which is then managed by the Delivery Agent Partnership (DAP), which was founded by Carbon Management Canada (CMC) and the Sundre Petroleum Operators Group (SPOG). AMEP will provide an international showcase for environmental and economic improvements that can be generated by private sector innovation, academic research and development, and proactive policy and regulation. This initiative will be sponsored by Alberta Environment and Parks (AEP), and it will be carried out in collaboration with the Alberta Energy Regulator (AER). AMEP will also receive funding from Alberta Environment and Parks.

The reduction of methane emissions from oil and gas extraction operations in the upstream sector is the primary emphasis of the Alberta Methane Emissions Program (AMEP). Fugitive emissions make up a percentage of total emissions, and a comprehensive understanding of all contributions from this sector will be essential to ensure that industry and its regulators provide the most effective management solutions possible. During the AMEP, it is highly possible that further sources of methane will be located; the information that is uncovered will be used by the AEP to gain a better understanding of the broader array of methane contributors, as well as the strategies available to regulate these emissions.

How Energy Companies are Adapting in the New Norm

The introduction of the energy service provider in the eighties has been a wild climb to the top in terms of demand. Energy service companies cover a diverse assortment of energy industry service providers. An ESCO is a company that offers detailed energy solutions to its clientele, such as auditing, improving and implementing adjustments to the ways the consumer utilizes energy, the definitive milestone being refined efficiency.

Based on past data and news from energy news outlets, going in to 2022 we’re positioned to witness historic high big oil prices. The issue being though is the fact that there are numerous nations with their unique plan that hinders with progress in the oil reliant energy segment. In Canada we notice this prominently between one of its provinces, Alberta, and the federal government. Concerns between Alberta and the Canadian authorities has a long and spotted history.

It is now clear that the “new norm” post COVID19 is driving providers to consider their company models and adjust accordingly. Yet another version of energy services was the technical side where technical measuring equipment and additional analytical gear have emerged as common in this rapidly progressing field.

Mainly energy service organizations center on reducing energy usage and saving organizations on energy expenditures by a range of ways which includes moderating energy consumption and discount rate negotiations with regards to energy supply management companies. In the 1990’s with deregulation we saw the rise of ESCOs then activities slowed down during the Obama administration we witnessed reversals of regulations only to again be deregulated by the current President Donald Trump. At the present time we’re witness to almost certainly the biggest deregulating governments the U.S.A. has ever experienced which is only improving with recent remarks from the Trump Administration made in Texas this past week.

An interesting study between the US and Canada indicates the contrasting differences regarding a deregulating government like the United States Of America is presently,, and the Liberal leading government of Canada. If truth be told, at the time of writing this article Total has stated they will be writing off over $6 billion in Alberta oil sands assets in Canada.

There are a number of variants of the categories of service offered by energy services companies. Some include renewable energy, carbon credit offset program, commissioning and startup, ecological site assessments, mobile steam services, fuel flare vent and others. However why bore (no pun intended) you with the specifics of every one of them.

Energy consultant companies are on the increase as rates vary we see a demand for energy procurement companies to make a deal for discount energy prices. The central focus of energy consultants is generally to save their clients dough by negotiating energy prices and making existing operations more cost effective. These service providers begin with undertaking what is also known as a base line of initial energy assessment. What this does is it renders a quantifiable start line by which every thing moving forward can be evaluated with to ascertain energy savings efficiency. Organizations that use energy management companies understand the worth of these reports by these energy service providers and as a result often work closely with each other. The importance of the close working relationship between the energy consultant and the organizations management can not be understated given in any energy review it is imperative to have corporate leaders promptly available.

Some of the solutions these companies perform might include things like turnarounds, construction, environmental impact studies, meter proving, mobile boiler trucks, transport and others. Overall though we are on the cusp of a paradigm shift within this sector due largely in part to the pandemic that has gripped the world over the past 6 months.

Jermaine Tegtmeier is a senior official with Tristar Energy Providers and this is what his thoughts were on the effect of COVID19 on the sector.

“Honestly it worries me with whats ahead for the energy segment in Canada. With political trepidation and the possibility of a resurrection of coronavirus we are all at the mercy of the federal governments of the world.”

ESCOs normally utilize performance contracting, signifying that if the endeavor doesn’t supply ROI, the energy service company is accountable to pay the difference, thus assuring their customers of the energy and cost savings.

Since its introduction in the 1990’s, a single US federal government program known as “Super-ESPC” (ESPC stands for Energy Savings Performance Contracts) has been accountable for $2.9B in energy services companies contracts. With it being revived and improved in late 2008 they’ve awarded 16 companies with what is generally known as Indefinite delivery/indefinite quantity or IDIQ contracts valued at over $5 billion each on average. The business of energy service can often mean many things but the one commonality among them all is the common target of decreasing energy spending and making current systems more efficient.

Nowadays it is not uncommon to find ISP (Internet Service Providers) which are supplying bundles with phone, Internet, tv and home security alarm systems, through a single provider. In Canada we generally see energy providers partnering with government so they’re able to further grow their reach with consumers which include the leading natural gas company in Canada named Enbridge, Enbridge has worked diligently to grow their service providers and products to capture even more of the energy consumer sector. We’re now observing the evolution and merging of utility and service providers.

Energy service firms however are a motley bunch that provide industrial solutions like turnarounds, fuel flare venting, restoration of discontinued wells etc. Services that the utility firms couldn’t be bothered to offer nor will they ever. These sorts of service will continuously remain autonomous. Lastly, you should note that energy solutions is a booming company that involves a wide selection of different project specific providers when in the oilfields or on the rig.

Grande Prairie Shutdown Services Company Breaks Down the Differences

Meter proving happens where a meter prover tests and confirms the quality of a meter either computerized , also known as SMART technologies, or analog. Where it comes to meter proving there are numerous variables and the figures may perhaps possibly change impulsively based on the kind of meter and technique of testing. For instance a propane gas meter prover samples the consistency of a propane meter. It is not as easy as you might imagine with regards to meter proving, the provers have to determine and compare to pre-calculated information as reported by their guide.

It is now essential to note that though meter proving and meter testing may possibly well to-be the same thing, they’re not and the dissimilarities are fundamental to understand also.
Don Hebert, TRESEO, a company focused on marketing for energy services

Meter proving is the method for determining a modification element (i.e. a meter factor) to fine-tune the calculated levels for inaccuracies as a result of installation and operational affects. This can be done in which the professional (aka certified meter prover) compares the outcomes obtained from the meter versus the data provided from NIST. Proving meters of hydrocarbon is very common among pipelines. More common than not provers have data provided from meter station employees to compare their data readings with.

meter testing - Grande Prairie Shutdown Services Company Breaks Down the Differences

Since the early 1900s, bell provers have been the most usual reference standard applied in gas meter proving, and has provided guidelines for the gas industry that’s sadly predisposed to an array of unmeasurable concerns.

A gas meter prover is a unit that verifies the correctness of a gas meter. City and public works are easily the many popular employers of meter provers. Harvest Oilfield Services is a company focused on providing not only meter proving services but also specialize in shutdown and turnaround services in the Grande Prairie region of Alberta, Canada.

We understand the intricacies of meter proving and testing and that is why our team of highly skilled trademen are adept in this vertical and offer only the finest in accuracy and dependability in the region.
Scott B. of Harvest Oilfield Services

Provers perform by transferring a known quantity of air through a meter while watching the gas meters register, index, or central displacement. Subsequently the prover analyzes the per cent of air directed through the meter using the air measured from the meter itself.

The bell is effectively a vertical interior tank with an external insulating exterior. A space among the inner tank and outer shell is loaded with a sealing liquid, usually oil. An upside down container, known as the bell, is set over the tank that is inside. The fluid could also be to act as a airtight seal for testing. Bell provers are regularly counter-weighted to supply pressure level that is positive to a line and valve connected to a meter. We regularly see rollers that are on the bell that allows for soft linear mobility without danger of ruining the strain created by the bell seal shifting.

Mistakes in proving by operators is interestingly common and should be considered and readjusted throughout all the incoming data. One inconsistency above every other is the the majority of common issues and that is where provers experience temperature discrepancies somewhere between the bell meter and the attached hoses utilized by the prover. Mechanical, human, insecure pipes and connections, are typically things that may possibly also be to blame for inconsistencies.

meter proving - Grande Prairie Shutdown Services Company Breaks Down the Differences

Since we earlier revealed, each gas type features its own means of meter testing. Natural gas as an example needs a couple visual inspections just before the PACs are made use of. There’s various different techniques of testing like gas quality, ultimately meter testing never compares data to a primary reference device. This is an exception to this rule still and that is the orifice meter testing. This method does demand testing versus a primary reference.

The natural advancement of the automated bell and PAC controls guided itself to the use of vacuum driven provers with arrays of sonic nozzles (using choked flow to present precise flow rates. This also not only is an advancement in full automation but also savings as it eliminates the need for a bell given testing is done through nozzles and pipes. When testing employing machine-controlled methods with vacuum, this is achieved with a sonic nozzle and validated against industry standards like Bernoulli’s principle. The best part about employing digital machine-controlled units in proving is that live data can possibly be collected and transmitted across an central network granting dynamic analyzing of the incoming live data.

UPDATE: after researching and compiling this article for publication, we felt that within the article we gave appropriate credits to the companies who’s research papers we drew from. However after publishing this blogpost we were contacted by an energy management advisor company, QuotEnergy, who claimed we’d used some of their data without giving credit. Therefore we do acknowledge that part of this article drew from data in part from QuotEnergy company.