Dispersion Simulation of Gaseous Pollutants Generated from a Drill Stem Test

Abstract

A drill stem test on a potential oil well was carried out in offshore of East Kalimantan to obtain important information of the formation fluid and to establish the probability of commercial production. The objective of the study was to run dispersion simulation of the generated NO2 and CO resulted from the burned fluid during the test. Dispersion simulation was based on Gaussian model and a burning scenario of 4000 barrels of fluid during two days test. Twelve years long climate data from Tarakan was explored to support pollutant dispersion direction prediction. It showed that prevailing wind blows from South to North at 3.3 m/s average speed. Gaseous pollutant would likely be dispersed to the northern area following the prevailing wind direction instead of moving to the densely populated coastal area of East Kalimantan located in the western side of the oil well. Analysis results indicated that during two days test the gaseous pollutant emission rate were 4.1E+7 and 4.4E+6 μg/s for NO2 and CO, respectively. It can be concluded that CO concentration complies the standard at every point away from DST location. NO2 complies with the national standard after 850 meter away from the DST location.