Oman Tells Companies to Take Gas Flaring Seriously

Oman is mandating companies to find solutions to reduce gas flaring, Times of Oman reported earlier this week citing Ministry of Oil and Gas statement.

The Ministry said that progress has been made but certain challenges still remain.

"Gas flaring has reduced because we are mandating the companies to take gas flaring very seriously and reduce it as much as possible by proposing different solutions," Salim bin Nasser Al Aufi, Undersecretary at the Ministry of Oil and Gas, told Times of Oman.

Al Aufi said that conversion into LNG or compressing the gas and using it again for power generation are some of the options to utilise the wastefully burned gas for beneficial use. 

"However, it has a higher cost. The cost is always a challenge with reducing gas flaring," he added. 

According to a report bythe National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOOA) in cooperation with the World Bank-led Global Gas Flaring Reduction Partnership, Oman flared 1.6 billion cubic metres (bcm) of gas in 2011, down from 2 bcm in 2007.