TEHRAN –Gas flaring at the Iranian South Pars gas field’s phases 17 and 18 of development has been reduced by 50 percent, according to the managing director of the field’s seventh refinery.

According to Hassan As’adi, the refinery’s first off-gas compressor has been installed and other compressors are going to be installed in near future, IRNA reported on Sunday.

The official noted that the installation of the second compressor is going to reduce the phases’ flare gas waste very significantly.

By optimizing the acid gas enrichment unit of phase 17, we were able to completely recover the acidic gases of four gas trains and eliminate acidic gas flaring in the mentioned trains, As’adi explained.

The collected enriched gas will be processed in a sulfur recovery unit, he added.

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.

“The use of flare gas is one of the challenges of the oil sector,” said Chitchian, adding, “Thus we are planning to attract investment from the private sector and offer loans in the two ministries for this purpose.”

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

According to Ahmad Mohammadi, the controversial practice of burning off gases through stacks at oil fields, will stop by 2022 in at least four locations south of Iran based on deals signed with two major Iranian companies.

Once a pure crude exporter, Iran has managed to expand downstream operations in the oil and gas sector both to meet a growing domestic demand for energy and to open up new markets for its refined products.

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.

EF/MA