Environment
Serinus has existing concession and licence holdings in Romania and Tunisia. Both asset portfolios cover extensive acreage but in vastly different topographic settings with the Satu Mare licence covering 2,949 km2 in the north-west of Romania, across primarily agricultural farmland, while the two Tunisian concessions are located in the central and southern regions of the country in both remote desert and populated, agricultural environments.
Serinus’ goal is to manage the distinct local environmental requirements of its operations in full compliance with the relevant regulations and to reduce our carbon footprint by minimising emissions and waste and mitigate the potential impact of our operations on the environment.
Romania
Serinus Energy Romania has continued to present an excellent HSE track record through 2023, with a zero-frequency rate (per one million man hours worked) for Total Recordable Injuries across all sites (2022 – zero for Serinus Romania employees) and in January 2024, the Moftinu Gas Plant reached 1,750 accident-free days of continuous operation. There have been no spills or environmental incidents at the Moftinu Gas Plant since its commissioning in 2019. Serinus Romania has maintained full compliance with all of its regulatory and environmental obligations.
Serinus Energy Romania completed its annual certification inspection and is certified for ISO 14001:2015 (Environmental Management Systems), ISO 9001:2015 (Quality Management) and ISO 45001:2018 (Occupational Health and Safety).
During 2023, energy use from grid electricity at the Moftinu Gas Plant was 315 MWh, 0.45% of the annual production of 69,910 MWh, compared with 317 MWh in 2022, which was 0.12% of that year’s annual production of 267,582 MWh. Nine solar panels have been installed at the Moftinu gas plant which generated 27.44kWh of energy in 2023, offsetting the equivalent of 9.007kg of CO2 emissions. Serinus Energy Romania continues to assess opportunities to expand its utilisation of solar power on its available sites.
In 2023, 6.367 MMcf of gas was flared from the two wells in production, including gas utilisation by the two compressors, during the year, being 8.85% of annual production, and equivalent to flared gas of 0.53 MMcf per month. 13,853m3 of produced water was generated from the two wells in 2023, compared with 19,341m3 of produced water from three wells during 2022 and 3,292m3 of produced water from four wells in 2021.
Flue gas emissions tests are performed annually, in accordance with the requirements specified in the environmental permit. The most recent test was undertaken in September 2023 which monitored an average CO2 emission level of 0.55% of total flue gas, below the benchmark CO2 threshold of 3.8%.
A Fugitive Emissions Monitoring Report was undertaken by a European accredited emission monitoring and pipeline integrity organisation, The Sniffers (www.the-sniffers.com), for the Moftinu Gas Plant in September 2023. The Group collected data and presented its report in accordance with the Environmental Protection Agency of the United States (“US EPA”) “Method 21” EPA-453/R-95-017. The Sniffers has been accredited ISO 17025 by BELAC (the Belgian accreditation body) on 17 December 2017 for the Method: “EPA 21 Protocol for equipment leak emission estimates, 1995, EPA-453/R-95-017”. All data and calculations were generated by proprietary software designed by The Sniffers called Sniffers Full Emission Management Platform “SFEMP”. Measured parts per million values are converted to emission loss (kg/year). These calculations are based on US EPA “Correlation factors for Petroleum Industry”. This method uses conversion factors depending on the source type and the measured value. The monitoring exercise completed a Leak Detection and Repair programme through which it identified a total of 2,698 potential emission sources, of which 26 were not accessible (a source of emission that cannot be measured as it cannot be reached physically or safely without additional tools and is recalculated to be representative of all sources) and 2,618 were accessible.
Of the 2,618 accessible potential emission sources identified, there were only 7 registered leaks, being 0.26% of accessible sources and resulted in an emission loss of 1.1 kg/year. One leak was detected above the Repair Definition threshold (the threshold concentration indicating obligatory repair of leaking sources which under the US EPA definition is 10,000 parts per million volume), amounting to 2.7 kg/year. The report concluded that a successful repair of the leak above Repair Definition could reduce the emission loss by 1.5 kg/year, equating to 88.85% of the total emission. The leak has been repaired.
Tunisia
Serinus Tunisia maintained a strong HSE track record through 2023, with a zero-frequency rate (per one million man hours worked) for Total Recordable Injuries across all sites (2022 – zero for Serinus Tunisia employees). There were no environmental incidents at Sabria and two minor incidents at Chouech Es Saida which were addressed and repaired. Serinus Tunisia has maintained full compliance with all of its regulatory and environmental obligations.
Environmental monitoring has been undertaken across all of our Tunisian fields since 2014 in compliance with legal requirements and the Group’s responsibilities to the local environment. The annual environmental report for 2023 was submitted to the Agence Nationale de Protection de l’Environnement (“ANPE”) in January 2024.
During 2023, the annual environmental monitoring was undertaken by Le Centre Mediterraneen d’Analyses (“CMA”) at the Sabria and Chouech Es Saida fields, assessing: air emissions from stacks at both fields; air quality monitoring; groundwater monitoring; produced water; fresh water; soil sampling and noise pollution. The environmental monitoring programme for remote locations is reviewed by local management and implemented at all sites.
Stack air emission analysis and air quality monitoring was conducted at Sabria and Oum Chiah in September 2023. Analysis of the results demonstrated that the Group was in compliance with approved thresholds of groundwater and soil contaminants and required solid waste management. The Group’s own review of air emissions showed compliance in all areas, in accordance with the air quality limits set by Decree No. 2018-447 of 18 May 2018 and Decree No.2010-2519 of 28 September 2010, except for carbon monoxide (“CO”) emissions from older fixed equipment. The Group has investigated mitigation measures and a short and medium-term action plan with an enhanced preventative maintenance programme has been implemented to address this, including the refurbishment and overhaul of affected equipment. Ground water monitoring is conducted on a yearly basis from existing water wells drilled at Sabria. No evidence of pollution has been reported. Five piezometer wells were drilled at Sabria to monitor the ground water table in 2014 which continue to be monitored.
The water disposal project manages produced water production at Sabria. This formation water has high salinity (360 grams/litre) with traces of heavy metals. Until 2015, disposal at Sabria was conducted by discharge into lined surface pits for natural evaporation of fluids. The low efficiency of natural evaporation together with the ongoing need to construct additional lined pits led to the introduction of automated fracturing evaporator technology in 2015 and which has enabled the acceleration of evaporation of produced water through an automated and a more efficient process. At Sabria, 37,581m3 of produced water was disposed of in 2023 (2022 – 49,129m3) and at Chouech Es Saida 196,770m3 of produced water was evaporated from lined surface pits in 2023 (2022 – 225,283m3). The Group is investigating alternative environmentally-responsible produced water disposal solutions.
A review of environmental management at the Sabria fields was conducted by First North African Consultancy for the Environment (“FNAC” www.fnac-environment.com), an engineering consultancy, in September 2020. This was designed to review compliance at Sabria with Tunisian environmental regulations and analyse underground water and soil pollution in proximity to the water disposal project. The scope of this work included: the recovery, analysis and assessment of environmental and technical documents and reports related to the evaporation ponds; the analysis of all previous waste pit treatment operations and related reports; analysis of existing red register (hazardous waste) and blue register (domestic waste); coring and sampling investigations of the potential impacted areas (soil and underground water) within the Sabria field; water sampling and laboratory analysis from existing piezometers and production water discharge; and the performance of an environmental monitoring program of the potential impacted areas within Sabria field. The program was conducted in conjunction with representatives of ANPE and the environmental reports were submitted to ANPE. Results from the assessment showed below threshold levels of potential pollutants set under Tunisian regulations and equivalency with both groundwater and soil control samples. These demonstrated the efficacy of the water disposal project and the process of produced water storage in evaporation pits, with no evidence of leakage or overflow from the pits into the soil or groundwater. Subsequent to this review, recommendations from the report have been, and continue to be, implemented. The Group began air emissions monitoring at Sabria and Chouech in August 2015 and continues to do so.
Waste management procedures have been implemented in all locations in Tunisia and monitor a comprehensive range of waste products including industrial waste (dry cell batteries, lead acid batteries, empty gas cylinders, oil filters, used oil, contaminated waste, used fluorescent lighting), resource waste (diesel consumption), hazardous waste (sewage, medical waste), domestic waste (food waste, plastic bottles, cooking oil, paper) and office waste (plastic bottles, paper, printer cartridges, batteries). For example, 1,164 kg of paper and plastic bottles were recycled in the Tunis office in 2022, which decreased to 784 kg of paper and plastic bottles being recycled in 2023, as a result of training and greater awareness of wastage. Electricity consumption at the Tunis office in 2023 was 110,337 kWh higher than 2022 (93,920 kWh) as a result of the temporary contractors presence that have been hired for both Sabria workovers and the geological study of Sabria. At Sabria electricity consumption decreased 12% to 601,259kWh (2022 – 679,902kWh). Chouech is not connected to the electricity grid and power at Chouech is provided by on site gas generators. Fresh water consumption in 2023 at Sabria was 15,820m3 (2022 – 16,290m3) and at Chouech, 26,498m3 (2022 – 41,440m3). Diesel consumption across all operational locations was 150m3 a 2% decrease over 2022 (153m3) but remains a significant reduction from 2019 (305m3) reinforced by a combination of greater awareness of wastage, training, optimisation and more efficient transport management.