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The Prospects, Challenges, Gains and Opportunities – An analysis of the

environmental policies, models and strategies in the Republic of Congo oil
and gas sector

Article · September 2021

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Archange KEYE
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 Oil and Gas Management – Second assignment

Topic: “The Prospects, Challenges, Gains and Opportunities – An analysis of the

environmental policies, models and strategies in the Republic of Congo oil and
gas sector”

Archange Moïse Sanctifié KEYE

R2105D12206797
Oil and Gas Management
UEL – SG – 7300 – 27400
Mahdi Sadri

10 September 2021
 Introduction

The oil and gas business and its operations is mainly divided into three segments:

upstream, midstream, and downstream. Oil and gas companies face many risks from upstream

to downstream notably those related to the environment. The different risks that may occur and

environmental risks must be considered fairly to reduce deleterious environmental effects and

accidents. By incorporating issues link to environment into all parts of day-to-day operations,

oil and gas firms can achieve beneficial results socially, while eluding probable disasters and

stricter law. Inserting environmental by acting is advance is vital as unsustainable business

practices create a serious threat to the local and global environment (Haley 2015, p.1). Oil and

gas production whether it’s onshore and offshore is usually subject to many surroundings

environment impact of harmful consequences, notably in the Republic of Congo which is one

amongst the most important crude oil producers in the sub-Saharan Africa.

Oil and gas play an important role in the economy of the Republic of Congo. In recent

years, buyers of its products have been increasing significantly. Meeting the growing word

energy demand will bring great risks and significant impacts to society and the environment.

Therefore, oil and gas firms face the challenge of meeting the world’s escalating energy

demands while minimizing the negative externalities related to these businesses. In addition,

the success of implementation of environmental hazards considerations will depend on the

business’s ability to monitor and outline on new design plans. Unremitting evaluation and

obtaining up to date information on manager’s environmental performance is an obvious way

to ensure that environmental risks are considered at every stage of operations (Haley 2015,

p.17).

The economic and financial situation of Congo depends on the good health of the

dominant sector which is the sector of oil, and the social situation is not judged to match the

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level of income generated by the exploitation of hydrocarbons, although notable improvements

have been noted, following numerous reforms implemented in the health and education sector.

Congo's economy is dominated by oil exploitation. Indeed, from 1975 to 1984, oil

exploitation, which started in the 1960s, has intensified, leading to profound changes in the

structure of the product domestic and exports, as well as government revenues. This

development was favoured by an economic favourable rise in oil prices on the world market

during this period. The Congolese economy has recorded a sustained growth rate of around

10% on an annual average. Since 1960, Congolese territorial waters are threatened by

multifaceted pollution, but above all by pollution resulting from exploitation and production of

oil and gas.

This paper will focus on research and critical analysis of environmental policies

adopted by oil and gas companies and it’ll investigate on the challenges faced by companies in

adopting these policies in the Republic of Congo also called Congo Brazzaville.

Main content

The Republic of Congo is in central Africa, at the equator, with Gabon and the Atlantic

Ocean to the west, and the Democratic Republic of Congo to the east. The Congo River is

shared by the two countries. The southern part of the Republic of Congo borders the

Democratic Republic of Congo and the province of Cabinda (Angola); finally, in the north and

northwest, the Central African Republic and Cameroon (Okamba 1996, p.13).

The Republic of Congo is a small country with superficies of 342.000 km2, it has

National Oil Companies like SNPC (Société Nationale des Pétroles du Congo) and

International Oil companies such as Total Energies E&P Congo, Eni Congo, Perenco Congo,

AOGC... While operating offshore, many risks are associated to oil and gas companies such as

flaring, oil spills and waste (refer to figure 1 below which is an illustration of impacts from

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typical deep-sea drilling activity). Like many oceans in the world, in addition to the dead sea,

the Atlantic Ocean in the Congo region is also affected by many activities that pose a risk of

oil spills. They are growing day by day as it is part of an important route to Europe in the

Middle East and inversely, especially for the maritime transport of oil and dangerous goods.

(Okamba 1996, p.16).

Figure 1: Diagram of impacts from typical deep-sea drilling activity (Source:

https://www.frontiersin.org/files/Articles/207190/fenvs-04-00058-HTML/image_m/fenvs-04-00058-g003.jpg)

The national petroleum company of Congo (SNPC) created in April 1998, following

the dissolution of the old company National Hydro Congo. It is at the heart of the institutional

mechanism for the management of hydrocarbons in the Congo. It's a public establishment of

an industrial and commercial nature, endowed with legal personality, financial autonomy, and

management, 100% owned for the Congolese state, placed under the supervision of the

Ministry of Hydrocarbons. SNPC's mission is to manage, on behalf of the State, all assets,

direct and indirect rights, of any kind, initially held by the State, and to represent the interests

of the State in all contractual relations with third parties.

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 Oil spill in the upstream

Oil and gas upstream activities are currently the main one in the Republic of Congo,

and the economy is heavily dependent on it. Oil extraction practices vary from country to

country and company to company. Environmental impacts also vary, depending on political

and environmental pressure, or lack of pressure to minimize risks. In Pointe-Noire, which is

the city of oil and gas and the economic capital of Congo-Brazzaville, oil pollution is a real

problem that dangerously threatens both the environment and the health of the populations.

Oddly enough, the oil companies never like to hear about this problem. Claiming that they

spend so much money on social actions in favour of these populations of this city. The

Congolese authorities, for their part, turn a blind eye. Rare resolutions taken during the

seminars do not come to fruition, (Mbaki 2003).

Nowadays, upstream activities of petroleum and gas industry is expanding in deep sea,

both are now global industrial activities in deep waters. Petroleum and gas companies has

expanded in deep water over the past years due to the depletion of easily accessible oil and gas

resources and technological advances. Nevertheless, this growth into the deep-sea petroleum

and gas field is not always accompanied by laws that reflects modern environmental protection

practices. Obviously, it is necessary to combine the current information of ecology in deep sea,

the impact that deep-sea ecosystems have on human being, and different environmental

protection measures that have existed so far (Cachot 2016).

Environmental pollution caused by oil has attracted a lot of attention. Reason for this is

that oil product is noxious to all forms of life and can damage marine and earthly ecosystems.

The pollution of maritime habitat is attracting attention to researchers and environmental

documents. This is due to the severe impact of oil spills for marine agencies and people whose

occupations depend on the development of resources found in the sea. Furthermore, marine life

can be influenced by clean-up operations. It can also be influenced by damaging the physical

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aspects of plants and animal habitats indirectly. Oil spills from oil tankers caused by issues

from equipment using oil, transport accidents and other activities related to the industry are

classified as dangerous goods (Saadoun 2015).

In the Republic of Congo, a potential oil spill at an oil facility may have been related to

a leak or rupture of a pipeline, or failure of production operations due to man-made mistake,

eruption of a well, accidental fire of a flare or explosion. These factors are part of every oil

company's safety and emergency response plans. Beyond all these considerations, Congo's

laws do not have enough marine environmental protection laws. The first national law on this

subject was the 1991 national constitution and in article 100 the constitution does not recognize

the right of everyone to a clean and normal environment with respect to atmospheric and marine

habitats. Specific measures have been taken through Law 003/91, which sets out pollution

prevention standards for air and water habitats, cities, and villages (Okamba 1996, p.33).

The national law is a key legal feature for protecting the marine environment. If the

right cannot be exercised, the right has no meaning. It is also the duty of any country to enforce

and apply laws through various agencies as needed. Congolese law is based on French public

law and is subdivided into constitutional, commercial, civil, and administrative.

The Congolese government have an important role to play in mitigating the harmful

impacts of its petroleum industry. Without improving governance in the country, external

efforts to ensure a better environment and the social outcomes of oil companies will be

undermined. On the 23rd April 1992, the law number 003/91 related to the protection of the

environment was voted by the Congolese government. Article 28 under title 5 “protection of

water” stated: spills, rejection, waste, direct or indirect deposits of any solid substance, gas and

liquid likely to degrade the quality of waters under Congolese jurisdiction are prohibited.

Moreover, article 30 of the same title mentioned: the ministers responsible respectively for the

environment and the Marchand navy may by the joint decree authorize the dumping, rejection,

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or incineration of substances at sea not covered or prohibited by this law under conditions such

that these operations do not harm to the aquatic environment, its uses, and its user.

One of the main challenges with oil spill pollution in the Republic of Congo is

establishing an oil spill response centres in coastal areas. This has a cost and people must be

trained and equipped. By establishing an oil spill response team, petroleum companies along

with the government will manage oil spills in a record time and reduce pollution.

Flaring in the upstream

Flaring function is first and foremost a safety function, to ensures the protection of

equipment against pressure build-ups that could cause them to explode. In addition, flaring

makes it possible to recover the "fatal" gases and to reject them at the atmosphere. Such activity

has been growing in recent years because of the increase of oil and gas activities. An alternative

to burning gas is to let the gas escape into the atmosphere. This is not the preferred option for

two reasons. The first is the environment: burning gas is more environmentally friendly than

letting gas escape. The second one is obviously safe. When a large amount of gas escapes, the

wind will blow them in an unusual direction, which may pose a security threat. In recent years,

the Republic of Congo has been polluting more, surely due to the increase of production and

oil and gas platforms (see figure 2 and 3 below).

Figure 2: Flare Volumes in top 30 countries that flare from 2016-2020 (Sorted by 2020 flare volume). Source: NOAA, Payne
Institute and Colorado School of Mines, GGFR.

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Figure 3: Flaring intensity in top 30 countries that flare from 2016 to 2020 (Sorted by 2020 flare volume). Source: NOAA,
Payne Institute and Colorado School of Mines, GGFR.

Almost everywhere in the world, every year, billions of cubic meters of natural gas go

up in smoke, burnt to waste. Reducing flaring while operating is one of a main goal of oil and

gas companies. The functions of flaring system are:

➢ to safely collect all the gas discharges from the process to maintain the equipment

within the limits of their operating pressure in the event of depressurization, or valve

opening.

➢ to separate gas and condensates in scrubbers

➢ to send the gas to the flare to be burned

To mitigate the impact on the environment caused by flaring, according to US Fed

News Service, the government of the Republic of Congo and the oil companies operating in

the country have taken gradual measures to reduce natural gas combustion. One of the main

projects that have been implemented is the development of an integrated solution for the

combustion of natural gas in the M`Boundi oil field, using associated gas to generate electricity

at the Djeno and Centrale Electrique du Belgium (CEC) power plants. The initiative not only

reduced a lot of greenhouse gas emissions, but also provided electricity to thousands of people

(Chematek n.d).

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 Eni Congo, which is an international oil company, also focus on reduction of flaring

under normal operation condition. Eni's climate strategy views the transition to a low-carbon

economy as a challenge and a business opportunity. The company's actions include energy

efficiency measures, reducing natural gas combustion, developing natural gas market

opportunities, and increasing the share of renewable energy. Short-term mitigation objectives

specifically focus on reducing emissions by reducing gas combustion and implementing energy

efficiency plans at the plant level. Combustion is the practice of using a torch to burn natural

gas related to oil extraction. Combustion occurs in oil extraction fields that lack systems and

infrastructure to recover natural gas. In addition, in some cases, the choice of burning this gas

depends on the lack of a local natural gas market or the lack of appropriate infrastructure

networks for local use or export of natural gas. From an economic point of view, burning wastes

an important resource, which is then managed as waste, which has a negative impact on the

local and global levels in terms of the emission of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases

into the atmosphere. Using 2007 as the base year, Eni's goal is to reduce combustion emissions

by 80% by 2015. This means an investment of 1.1 billion US dollars and will gradually reduce

natural gas combustion and increase the valuation of associates gas (Chematek n.d).

One of the main IOCs operating in the Republic of Congo is Total Energies E&P Congo

which has been in the country since 1968. Total is the main oil producer in the

country. Total Energies E&P Congo operates 10 of the 22 oil fields that have been developed,

representing approximately 60% of the country's production. The Group’s 2012 net capital

production averaged 113,000 boe/p. In the Republic of the Congo, as in all the countries in

which it operates, Total is fully aware of its responsibility to local communities and the

protection of the environment.

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 To reduce everyday flaring, Total Energies E&P Congo team is dedicated to it. The

following solutions are listed to mitigate this type of flaring unless gas valorisation routes for

satellite field or compression stages exist for a long time:

➢ Consider further oil recovery of flare gas. An analysis of flare gases from an offshore

facility as an example shows that it contains about 20% by weight of hydrocarbons in

the C5+ range. A portion of these fractions can be recovered and spiked into major

petroleum export streams to be recovered in liquid form. The amount of oil recovered

can benefit flaring removal projects (Labeyrie & Rocher 2010).

➢ Install compressors to recover gas from atmospheric separators. Additional benefits to

flaring reduction are:

1. Once the liquids have been recovered from the vapour stream by cooling the

discharge stream, the surplus gas can be used as gas lift or exported.

2. Low wellhead pressure wells could be produced in atmospheric separator,

allowing to lower wellhead flowing pressure, and subsequently increase oil production.

➢ It transforms running water pipes into gas-liquid pipes and exports gas to key equipment

from satellites. Use a multi-phase pump that requires less space than a compressor.

➢ to maintain improved oil recovery and / or storage pressure and increase production

after a few years. It can penetrate gas injector wells, but also consider the possibility of

converting production wells or water injector wells into gas injectors (such as

perforations).

➢ If a gas turbine cannot be installed, the associated gas engine can provide compressive

force. Gas engines are more energy efficient (40%). Combined with a reciprocating

compressor, it is suitable for low gas content and high compression ratio. Engines are

heavier than turbines of comparable power produced and can have maintenance and

vibration issues. Fuel gas adjustments may also be required (Ipieca 2013).

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 ➢ Install a gas ejector to recompress the exploding low-pressure gas using the energy from

the high pressure well. warning: This equipment has very low compression efficiency,

so it is necessary to properly review the use of ejectors (Ipieca 2013).

Conclusion

To conclude, beside the environmental impacts, offshore oil and gas activities have an

impact on humans, whether in large oil spills, flaring under normal or abnormal operating

condition or during daily operations. Regardless of who the flare gas is, whether it is a NOC

(State Oil Company) or an International Oil Company (IOC), investment incentives for flare

reduction must be appropriate and clear. Regulations should, wherever possible, encourage

voluntary buyers and voluntary sellers to make beneficial economic use of the large volumes

of flare gas emitted and flared annually. Gas fire reduction regulations and technologies

employed in each country must be site-specific. There is no single option that is suitable for all

fields. Each field has its own characteristics, size, local market conditions and infrastructure

requirements. Each country has its own political, institutional, and financial framework.

Oil spills are caused by human error and carelessness but are sometimes caused by

natural disasters such as hurricanes or earthquakes. However, deliberate actions by terrorists,

countries at war, sabotage, and illegal refuelling or dump trucks demonstrate that oil spills are

not always accidents. Any spilled oil will naturally be broken down by microorganisms into

simpler substances. The use of biosurfactants has been shown to have ideal properties, making

it one of the best suitable methods for the release of emulsified crude oil for biodegradation.

The biodegradation process is relatively slow, when an oil spill occurs, workers must act

quickly to protect the environment. Most crude oils are biodegradable in nature, but they

basically do not contain the nitrogen, phosphorus, or other trace elements necessary to stimulate

oil-degrading microorganisms.

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 References:

Cachot, J 2016. "Environmental impacts of the deep-water oil and gas industry: a

review to guide management strategies", Frontiers in environment science, 16th September

2016, viewed on 10th August 2021. DOI : https://doi.org/10.3389/fenvs.2016.00058

Chematek, n.d, viewed on 3rd August 2021, https://chematek.com.au/eni-providing-

access-to-electricity-and-reducing-gas-flaring-in-the-republic-of-the-

congo/?__cf_chl_jschl_tk__=pmd_j7AG9AI1kEMSyRB0F5.a6_fvWIq7bqykqGBDG_HN.A

Y-1630939695-0-gqNtZGzNApCjcnBszQd9

Haley, C 2015, Managing Environmental Risk in the Oil and Gas Industry, Senior

Theses Paper 1121, Claremont McKenna College, viewed on 16th August 2021,

https://scholarship.claremont.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=2206&context=cmc_theses

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efficiency-solutions/flaring-and-venting/flaring-continuous-production/

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An Operator's View. Paper presented at the SPE International Conference on Health, Safety

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Mbaki, P, E 2003, Le Congo désarmé face à la pollution pétrolière, viewed on 16th

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https://commons.wmu.se/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1989&context=all_dissertations

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 Saadoun, I, M, K 2015, Impact of Oil Spills on Marine Life, Emerging Pollutants in the

Environment - Current and Further Implications, 2nd September 2015, viewed on 29th August

2021. https://www.intechopen.com/chapters/48738

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https://ep.totalenergies.com/en/engagements/environment-climate/putting-environment-

center-our-strategy

US Fed News Service 2012, Republic Of Congo Joins Global Efforts To Reduce Gas

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https://www.proquest.com/newspapers/republic-congo-joins-global-efforts-reduce-

gas/docview/1022439968/se-2?accountid=188730

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