The minister of state petroleum resources (gas), Mr Ekperikpe Ekpo, has solicited the cooperation of Emerson Automation Solutions Limited for Nigeria’s energy transition by asking it to bring up innovative solutions for tackling fugitive emissions.
Spokesman for the minister, Mr Louis Ibah, said the minister made the request during a meeting with the global automation company on the sidelines of the 28th meeting of the Conference of the Parties (COP) to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) held recently in Dubai, United Arab Emirates.
He urged the firm to partner the federal government to achieve set targets in energy transition journey.
He said the company had been of service to the Nigerian oil and gas industry for many years “but I like to request that you join hands with our industry as we continue to work on achieving our targets in the energy transition journey.”
“I will be most pleased if you bring up innovative solutions for tackling fugitive emissions, while also measuring fugitive emissions in our industry,” he added.
Responding, the president Middle East and Africa for Emerson, Mr. Mathias Schinzel, thanked the minister for the meeting and restated the company’s commitment to providing quality service to the Nigerian gas industry.
He highlighted Emerson’s vast experience in the entire gas industry value chain from sensors to meters and reaffirmed the company’s commitment in bringing that to bear its expertise in a collaborative effort with the ministry of petroleum resources, gas.
The meeting ended with both parties agreeing to collaborate to find solutions what could be deployed to significantly improve and eventually automate the operations of the Nigerian gas grid, as well as measuring and monitoring of fugitive emissions from pipelines and other assets in the industry.
Fugitive emission is the unintentional and undesirable emission, leakage, or discharge of gases or vapours from pressure-containing equipment or facilities, and from components inside an industrial plant such as valves, piping flanges, pumps, storage tanks, compressors, etc.
The term “fugitive” is used because these emissions are not taken into account and calculated during the design of the equipment and components. In addition, these emissions are unanticipated; as such, they are not detected by typical monitoring and control devices. Since the typical control equipment and facilities cannot detect them, fugitive emissions can also be called uncontrolled or unanticipated emissions.
