Maroon Oil and Gas Production Company and the Persian Gulf Petrochemical Holding Company are jointly implementing a project to reduce gas flaring to zero in Shadegan, Koupal and Maroon oilfields in the southern oil-rich province of Khuzestan, managing director of Maroon Oil and Gas Production Company said.
“The firm produces close to 15 million cubic meters of natural gas per day, of which a massive 12% or 1.8 mcm go to waste in the form of flare gas,” Hamid Kaviyan was also quoted as saying by ISNA.
With the help of the private sector, the company has reduced harmful emissions by collecting 500,000 cubic meters of associated petroleum gas per day, he added.
However, Kaviyan noted that there was a long way to reach zero flaring.
“The ongoing joint project, which is expected to become operational in 2024 will increase APG collection to 2.3 mcm per day, all of which will be used as feedstock in Maroon Petrochemical Company,” he said.
The company’s daily crude refining capacity amounts to 600,000 barrels, most of which are used as feedstock in Isfahan Refinery in the namesake central province.
Since 2008, Iran has prevented the flaring of 12 billion cubic meters of APG, a source of global warming and wastage of valuable fuel. Nonetheless, the country remains one of the top three states with the highest APG flaring rate.
He said collecting APG from oil and gas fields is a priority of the Oil Ministry in the framework of the policy to safeguard the environment, curb the loss of national wealth and create jobs.
APG is natural gas found with deposits of petroleum. Flaring pours methane, ethane and propane into the atmosphere and contributes to air pollution.
Based on the National Iranian Oil Company data, daily gas flaring in 2017 was 50 million cubic meters but dropped below 30 mcm/d in 2019. In 2018, it was 40 mcm/d with $5 billion net loss for the treasury because the gas could have been used alternately for economic benefit such as power generation.
Economic Benefits
Flaring deprives countries of economic benefit from using gas associated with pumping crude oil, rather than releasing it into the air and worsening air pollution.
According to a law passed in 2017, the government is obliged to curb the flaring of natural gas to 10% or lower by 2023 and several plans have either been completed or are in the implementation phase.
The collected gas can be utilized in a number of ways after processing: It can be sold and used in the natural-gas distribution networks, used for on-site electricity generation with engines or turbines, reinjected for secondary recovery and used in enhanced oil recovery, converted from gas-to-liquids for producing synthetic fuels, or used as feedstock in the petrochemical industry.
According to a World Bank report, a massive amount of gas flares at oil production sites around the world burn approximately 140 billion cubic meters of natural gas annually, emitting more than 300 million tons of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere.
Referring to other environmentally-friendly plans in the three oilfields, Kaviyan said 99% of the wastewater produced in crude refining units are recycled and injected to oil wells again.
Maroon Oilfield is the second largest oilfield of Iran. Discovered in 1963, the field contains estimated recoverable oil reserves of 22 billion barrels, making it the world's sixth biggest onshore oilfield.
“The company has indigenized 20,000 equipment and parts in collaboration with domestic manufacturers and engineers over the past two decades,” he said.
“These parts meeting the lion’s share of the company's needs have reduced the import of equipment under the US sanctions regime."
Indigenized equipment include pumps, anti-corrosion steel pipes, valves, turbines, storage tanks, boilers and compressors.
