Iran Stops Gas Flaring in Its Western Oilfields

Iran says it has stopped flaring natural gas at some of its oilfields near the border with Iraq.

A subsidiary company of the Iranian Oil MInistry said on Monday that it had opened the first phase of a gas processing refinery in the city of Dehloran, in the western province of Ilam, to capture some 2.37 million cubic meters (mcm) (84 million cubic feet) per day of natural gas that used to be burnt at oil production sites in the region.

The refinery, dubbed NGL 3100, is a key part of Iran’s plans to stop flaring of natural gas at oilfields connected to reservoirs in neighboring Iraq.

The plans are aimed at increasing feedstock supplies delivered to Iranian petrochemical plants and to meet environmental objectives in the region.

A Monday report by the ISNA news agency said that Iran plans to capture up to 15 mcm per day of natural gas from its oilfields until the end of the calendar year in late March.

That would be above a target of 4 billion cubic meters (bcm) of flare gas recovery per year, which the country set in a five-year development plan that ended in 2023.

However, an ongoing development plan stipulates that Iran should be able to capture 16 bcm of natural gas from its oilfields by 2028.

Iran has also authorized its major petrochemical companies to capture flare gas from oilfields in the oil-rich province of Khuzestan in the southwest of the country.

The Persian Gulf Petrochemical Industries, which is the largest state-run holding of petrochemical plants in Iran, is currently working on a US$1.1 billion project to extinguish 55 gas flares in Khuzestan to create 17 mcm per day of new feedstock supplies for its plants. - Press TV