Country
Assessment
Article 4 of Resolution No. 143/1998 requires the operator to submit a request for exemption to the undersecretary for breaching the permitted limits. Annex 1 of the resolution describes the procedure for submitting such a request. The regulator has 90 days from the date of receipt of the request to issue the approval or rejection of the request. Every request for an exemption must demonstrate for each reservoir the technical reasons for exceeding the limits and the maximum flow rate of gas to be flared or vented. The documentation and data should be updated every six months by May 31 and November 30 of each year in which exemptions are requested. Section 3 of Annex 1 of Resolution No. 143/1998 states that the Energy Secretariat may judge whether venting should be reduced, either temporarily or permanently, on a case-by-case basis. Section 3 requires allowed venting to follow appropriate procedures and minimize the emissions of harmful gases into the environment. Section 3 also states that Sections 3, 4, and 5 of Resolution No. 105 should be followed in all cases. The Neuquén province’s Decree No. 29/2001 outlines the same criteria as Resolution No. 143/1998.
Gas flaring and venting are regulated at the federal and provincial levels. The federal regulatory authority is the Undersecretariat of Hydrocarbons (Subsecretaría de Hidrocarburos), part of the Federal Energy Secretariat (Secretaría de Gobierno de Energía). The federal regulatory authority for natural gas is the Energy Secretariat. Decree No. 7/2019 created the Ministry of Productive Development and placed the Energy Secretariat under its authority. Each oil- and gas-producing province has its own regulator, governed by the Hydrocarbons Law, 1967 , and by provincial legislation and regulations. The regulatory authority is the Undersecretariat of Energy, Mining and Hydrocarbons, under the Ministry of Energy and Natural Resources in Neuquén, the Ministry of Hydrocarbons in Chubut, the Energy Institute in Santa Cruz, and the Energy Secretariat in Rio Negro.
Resolution No. 143/1998 prescribes that gas be flared, not vented, through appropriate procedures. If, for technical reasons, the gas cannot be flared, the operator is required to submit a report to justify venting. Annex 1 (“Norms and Procedures for Venting Gas”) lists the circumstances under which gas venting is allowed: section 3.1 permits flaring or venting when the gas-to-oil ratio at the vent point does not exceed 1 m³ of gas per 1 m³ of crude oil produced. section 4.4 permits periodic venting of gas when there are no conduction lines to capture the gas at the wellhead. section 5.1 permits venting when it occurs during well testing. The authorities should be notified in writing of all flaring and venting for all causes (maintenance, operations, or emergencies) within 24 hours. The reasons for the contingency, flow rates and damages, and the immediate measures and corrective measures implemented must be detailed. The Neuquén province’s Law 2.175/1997 prohibits gaseous emissions from oil and gas wells. Emissions from flares can be authorized for oil wells if the emissions are not characterized as a hazardous waste. Article 2 of Neuquén Provincial Decree No. 29/2001 requires the operator to submit a report documenting a justification for venting if the unused gas cannot be flared for technical reasons and to follow the same criteria for venting as stipulated in Resolution No. 143/1998.
Natural gas provides more than 60 percent of power generation and more than half of the total energy consumed. Law No. 24.076, 1992, known as the Natural Gas Law, established the basis for deregulation of natural gas transport and distribution industries. The Federal Gas Regulatory Authority, created in 1992 by Decree No. 2255/92, oversees the transportation and distribution of natural gas. Natural gas prices are a mix of regulated and market prices. Before the 2015 energy reform, domestic oil and gas prices were significantly lower than those at trade parity, and public services tariffs did not cover operational costs. The domestic supply of oil and gas was insufficient to meet demand. After 2015, domestic oil and gas prices started to align with international levels. Resolution No. 46-E/2017, as amended by Resolutions No. 419/2017 and 12/2018, introduced producer subsidies to attract investments in unconventional natural gas reservoirs in the Neuquén Basin. A minimum price of US$7.50 per million British thermal units (mmBtu) was guaranteed during 2018, decreasing by US$0.50/mmBtu a year to US$6/mmBtu by 2021. On December 31, 2021, the program was to end, at which point prices were expected to match import-parity values. Law No. 26.197, 2006 , vests the federal government with the authority to grant concessions for interprovincial and export transport. Transport concessions located within the territory of only one province and not connected to export facilities were transferred to the provinces. Operators of pipelines and other transport and distribution infrastructure are required to provide open access to third parties if they have available capacity. Third parties have the right to access this transport infrastructure if they comply with the relevant procedures. The growth of natural gas production will require substantial new investment in infrastructure and export routes in the near and medium term as well as cost-effective production and transport systems. The federal government launched a public tender for constructing and operating a new gas pipeline from the Vaca Muerta area in Neuquén to Saliqueló, south of Buenos Aires. Construction is underway.
According to the Fourth Biennial Update Report to the UNFCCC in 2021, there were 58 projects registered with carbon markets, 46 of them under the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM). However, there were no new projects under CDM between 2016 and the publication of the 2021 report, while projects registering in voluntary markets had increased. Most of the energy projects centered on wind, solar, hydro, and biomass power generation; several captured and used methane emissions from the waste sector. YPF has two projects registered under the CDM, intended to reduce emissions in the La Plata and Luján de Cuyo industrial complexes. Combined, the two projects avoided about 168,687 tCO2 emissions in 2019. YPF also engages in carbon offset programs, such as reforestation in the Neuquén province. Started in 1998, these efforts sequestered an estimated 760,000 tCO2e over the course of 30 years.
Section 6 of Annex 1, on norms and procedures for venting gas, of Resolution No. 143/1998 covers flow rate measurement and registering. It requires the establishment and implementation at each venting point of a system to measure and record the flow of flared or vented gas and its composition in all cases. Article 14 of the Neuquén province’s Decree No. 29/2001 includes similar requirements.
No information specific to requiring a development plan for associated gas as part of the field development approval for greenfield projects was identified. However, Federal Resolution No. 105/1992 requires the operator to prepare an EIA for the development phase. The EIA must specify the installations to manage associated gas or dispose of it after a technical-economic study confirms that its use is not viable. Article 20 of the Neuquén province’s Decree No. 2.656/1999 outlines norms and procedures regulating environmental protection during oil exploration and production similar to those in Resolution No. 105/1992.
Section 8 of Annex 1 of Resolution 143/1998 states that as a condition for granting the exception to gas venting, the licensees must provide a guarantee of investments in emission abatement within 15 calendar days from the notification of the approval to the company. The amount of the guarantee depends on the emission flows during the exception period and the abatement investments to be made. Guarantees are set for each project by semester or as a fraction of the exception period and of the investment to be made. The guarantee will be called if the company does not execute the agreed investments for each project at the expiration of each term.
Resolution No. 143/1998 , subsection 5 of Annex 1 (“Norms and Procedures for Venting Gas, Section 5, Reasons for Exception–Gas Venting”), requires a technical and economic feasibility study in cases in which gas at the venting point has a high content of inert or toxic gases and the gas-to-oil ratio in each well is less than the 1,500 m³ of gas per m³ of oil, the limit stipulated in Section 3.2. The study should include analysis of the effects of the flow rate and total volume of vented gas. This analysis should demonstrate that neither the flow rates nor the volumes to be vented will reduce the exploitation of the gas. The study should include the flow rates and composition of the vented gas and the disposal method for each type of toxic gas produced. The Neuquén province’s Decree No. 29/2001 sets the same criteria as Resolution No. 143/1998.
For the environment plan to be approved by NOPSEMA, operators must demonstrate that emission levels are ALARP and acceptable. NOPSEMA does not prohibit or set limits on flaring or venting, or set methane intensity; instead, it pursues an “outcome-based” regulation. NOPSEMA will reject an environment plan if it does not find emission reduction levels to be ALARP and acceptable. According to the Code of Practice: Onshore Petroleum Activities in the Northern Territory, 2019 , Reduced Emissions Completions (RECs) are required where it is technically feasible to capture gas for sale or use. If RECs are not practicable, flaring must be used instead of venting, which is allowed only if capture or flaring is impossible. In Queensland, according to the Petroleum and Gas (Production and Safety) Act, 2004 , gas flaring is authorized if it is not feasible to use the gas commercially or technically, and venting is authorized if the gas is not safe to use or flare, or flaring is not technically practicable. For petroleum lease holders, venting is also authorized if it is part of a GHG abatement scheme. No similar flaring- or venting-specific guidelines were found in the legal and regulatory documents of other states, whose regulatory approach follows the ALARP principle and aligns with the national approach.