TEHRAN – Managing director of Iranian Central Oil Fields Company (ICOFC) said the company has inked a €125-million Engineering Procurement, Construction and Financing (EPCF) deal with an Iranian company for implementing a project that would prevent 82 million square feet of gas flaring every day.

The project, called Dehloran gas pressure boosting station, is aimed at collecting flare gases of Dehloran and Danan oil fields to be supplied as the feedstock of an NGL3100 liquid gas plant in the region, IRNA quoted Ramin Hatami as saying on Sunday.

According to Hatami, all stages of the project including financing, equipment preparation, as well as installation and commissioning are going to be carried out by the mentioned company in a 23-month period.

Underlining the significance of the project, the official noted that Dehloran station aims to complete Danan and Dehloran fields’ value chain, leading to optimal use of the country’s resources for realization of the “surge in production” intended by the Leader of the Islamic Revolution Seyed Ali Khamenei.

Protecting the environment, and creating jobs during the construction of the station and also after its commissioning were also emphasized as important goals of the said project.

The official further mentioned some of the final products of this project including natural gas for injection into Cheshmeh-Khosh oil field and also the country's national gas network, as well as gas condensate which would be used as feedstock for Dehloran petrochemical plant.

Hatami pointed out that the implementation of this project by a capable Iranian company is one of its strong points and said: "Considering that Central Iranian Oil Company is using a new contract form for awarding this project, it is expected that the project implementation would be accelerated."

As reported, the Dehloran gas pressure boosting station is going to be constructed about 35 km southeast of Dehloran County in Ilam Province.

Being developed by West Oil and Gas Production Company (WOGC) which is an ICOFC subsidiary, Dehloran and Danan oil fields are among the fields Iran shares with Iraq in the western borders of the country.

In order to achieve a desirable level of environment protection and sustainable development, the National Iranian Oil Company and the Oil Ministry are implementing various programs, one of which is promoting the establishment of flare gas recovery units in the country’s oil-rich regions.

Back in August 2019, Hamid Chitchian, a former minister who currently advises the government on energy issues, said the country had major projects planned to prevent flare gas waste.

According to Chitchian, at the time about 16 billion cubic meters (over 52 billion cubic feet) of flare gas was burning in the country that could be used for various economic purposes, including power generation.

Later that month, National Iranian South Oil Company (NISOC) Head Ahmad Mohammadi said that the country’s southern oil fields will stop wasting flare gas within three years.

Commercializing flare gas would enable Iran to diversify energy resources for power plants and industrial units while it can also be exported to other countries.

Earlier this month, NIOC Managing Director Masoud Karbasian said the oil industry’s flare gas waste in the previous Iranian calendar year (ended on March 19) declined by 25 percent compared to the preceding year.

Mentioning the NIOC’s programs for environmental protection in the previous year the official said: "One of these measures was the implementation of a project to collect 18 to 20 million cubic meters per day of flare gases by NISOC.”

EF/MA