Air Pollutant Loads Accompanying Petroleum Production Activities as an Indicator of Operating Efficiency at Khalda Petroleum Company

Abstract

The petroleum industry operates many combustion devices such as gas-fired boilers, power generators, turbines and process heaters for oil exploration, production, refining, and transportation. Many air pollutants accompany petroleum exploration and production activities, such as nitrogen oxides (NOx), sulfur dioxide (SO2), carbon monoxide (CO), hydrogen sulfide (H2S), and particulate matter (PM). Depending on the meteorological circumstances, these pollutants released into the atmosphere at a particular site may travel around the world in a matter of days to weeks. This research paper aims to calculate environmental and qualitative loads of major air pollutants in Khalda Petroleum Company to show the extent of its impacts on the surround environment, and evaluate the extent of environmental progress. The direct measurements of the prevailing air parameters in recent year (2022) have been used as an approved scientific and legal method for the periodic self-monitoring. The equipment that was used for active measurements were a gas analyzer with different models for measuring NOx, SO₂ and CO and a High-Volume Sampler for measuring TSP. The total pollution loads recorded the following values respectively 1055224.8 kg/y for CO, 44018.5 kg/y for NO_2, 14377.1 kg/y for SO2, and finally 3356.2 kg/y of TSP which have law amounts in all combustion devices. The high values were represented in major pollutants CO, NO₂, SO₂ and TSP respectively. The final result proved that, neither increasing production nor increasing the number of combustion devices are the main reasons for increasing air pollutants released to the atmosphere, and hence high pollution loads. Poor quality of the fuel used, increased consumption rates, and uncertainty of the operation conditions may be the reasons.