The National Iranian Gas Company prevented the emission of about 180 million tons of greenhouse gases in the last fiscal year (ended March 20, 2020) and emissions in the country's gas industry will be reduced by 70% in the next three years, the head of NIGC’s Health, Safety and Environment Department said.
Expansion of gas supply across the country and replacing natural gas with other types of fossil fuel, including diesel and mazut, last year helped reduce greenhouse gas emissions that led to a decrease in air pollution, Gholamreza Bahmannia was also reported as saying by the Oil Ministry’s news agency Shana.
The same trend will continue to further reduce emissions. Natural gas is to be supplied to more urban and rural areas, and collection and processing of associated petroleum gas in southern Iran, especially from the giant South Pars Gas Field in the Persian Gulf, will increase.
"Today, due to the vast gas network, a large part of the country's energy demand is supplied through natural gas. As a result, gas consumption in Iran has grown by 600% in the past 26 years, rising from 36 billion cubic meters in 1995 to 261 bcm now,” the official said.
Natural gas is a fossil fuel, though the global warming emissions from its combustion are much lower than those from coal or oil.
Natural gas emits 50-60% less carbon dioxide when combusted in an efficient natural gas power plant compared with emissions from a typical coal plant.
Considering only tailpipe emissions, natural gas also emits 15-20% less heat-trapping gases than gasoline when burned in CNG vehicles.
Declining South Pars Emissions
Noting that the amount of APG in the first five refineries of the South Pars Gas Field has been reduced to even lower than the desired level, Bahmannia said the collection of APG from other refineries is also on the agenda.
South Pars is the world's largest gas field, covering an area of 3,700 square kilometers of Iran's territorial waters in the Persian Gulf. It is being developed in 24 phases.
In view of development programs underway across phases, Iran will produce over 750 million cubic meters per day of natural gas from South Pars by next March and the total gas output will reach 1.1 billion cubic meters a day by 2022.
APG, or flare gas, is gas dissolved in oil. It is a mixture of hydrocarbons obtained from oil or gas extraction and separation processes. The gas can be utilized in a number of ways after processing: as feedstock for the petrochemical industry and for gas distribution networks.
The collection of APG from oil and gas fields helps safeguard the environment, curb the loss of national wealth and create jobs. It is an important safety measure at many oil and gas production sites, as it prevents industrial plant equipment overheating and exploding.
Iran has made verifiable progress in using flare gas for power generation and feed refineries.
“NIGC, as the largest energy supplier in the country, has taken effective measures in recent years to identify sources of greenhouse gas emissions, which are the cause of global warming and climate change, and to reduce emissions,” Bahmannia said.
However, despite the progress, Iran has the highest rate of energy waste in the form of APG in the Middle East and ranks third in the world in terms of gas flaring after Russia and Iraq.
