FLARING gas could soon start at the Kimmeridge wellsite – to burn methane from the wellhead.

Site operators, Perenco UK Ltd, say the flaring, from an 8-metre tall chimney stack, could last six months.

A notification to Dorset Council from the company says the temporary flare unit would reduce emissions at the wellsite while a gas compression system is installed.

In its documentation for the council the company say: “Due to unforeseen global circumstances regarding the manufacture and supply of the equipment required to reduce the venting of gasses at the Kimmeridge Wellsite … Perenco Wytch Farm are seeking approval … to install a temporary flare unit on site to achieve the combustion of untreated gases that are currently vented to the atmosphere. The unit will operate over a six-month period.”

The company say the site, to the west of Kimmeridge Bay, is currently being prepared to locate the flare unit on the western edge of the wellsite with the flare unit and a crane to erect it arriving this week.

It says the flare unit, 8metres tall by 1.6 metres across, will be contained by a concrete bund 6.4m by 4.4 m and 20cm high which will link into the existing surface water containment system on the site.

“These combustion systems are commonly used at landfill sites and other UK onshore hydrocarbon production sites to manage the untreated and vented off gases,” said a statement in support of the works.

The site has a single oil production well where oil is pumped to the surface using a beam pump, or nodding donkey, and transferred to two oil storage tanks via an above ground pipeline.

The Kimmeridge site is around 9km south-west of the Wytch Farm Gathering Station with its oil being transferred there by road tanker, three times per week.

Current production is in the region of 53 barrels of oil a day with methane gas as a by-product.

Said Perenco: “As methane has a Global Warning Potential (GWP) 28 times more potent that CO2, there is a significant environmental benefit to combusting the vent gases in a flare, even on a temporary basis of six months.”

It says the flare will burn off the gas at a temperature of 1,000degC allowing 99per cent destruction of the methane.

The Kimmeridge wellsite is believed to be the oldest continually operational site in the country and has been extracting oil from 520metres below the seabed since 1959.

Extracting oil from shale in the area dates back to the 1800s.