Iran Initiative Has Prevented the Flaring of 12 BCM of Gas in 10 Years

Iran has prevented the flaring of 12 billion cubic metres (bcm) of associated gas in the past 10 years thanks to a flaring initiative, a National Iranian Oil Company (NIOC) official has said. 

Referencing a plan that was launched in 2005, which aimed to curb the flaring of associated gas, the NIOC official, Morteza Miri, said, “We managed to prevent the burning 240 million cubic metres of sour gas per day in the first phase.

"The second phase of the plan aims to prevent the burning of 10 million cubic feet [some 280,000 cubic metres] of associated gas, of which 75% is carbon dioxide," Shana news agency quotes Miri as saying on January 6th.

Some 154 million cubic feet of sour gas come from gas pressure boost stations, of which around 140 million cubic feet are refined and supplied to LPG plants, he explained.

The second phase of the flaring plan has been progressed by 99%, he noted.

According to documents from Iran's Oil Ministry, a plan is in place to gather flared associated gas from 39 oil fields (50 phases) as well as 10 phases of the South Pars gas field to prevent the flaring of 19.78 million cubic metres of gas/day (mmcm/d).

Fields affiliated to Oil Ministry

Instead, the plan is to sell that gas at a very low price (3 cents/cubic metre on average) from March 2016 to March 2020 to companies who construct any power plants or mini LNG, and GTL plants located close to these fields. The country's raw gas production capacity is 700 mmcm/d -- including flaring and re-injection -- while the sweet gas output capacity stands at 550 mmcm/d.