Construction operations for transferring associated petroleum gas from three oilfields in the southern province of Khuzestan to processing facilities were launched on Sunday in a ceremony attended by Gholamreza Shariati, governor general of Khuzestan and senior oil officials.
Bijan Alipour, the head of National Iranian South Oil Company, also present at the event, said the projects are aimed at preventing nearly 40 million cubic meters per day of APG in the province's oilfields, namely Maroun-3, Maroun-6 and Mansouri, the National Iranian Oil Company's news portal reported.
Referring to the government's efforts to curb air pollution from APG and the Oil Ministry's policy to boost domestic companies' role in the energy sector, the official noted that four contracts have so far been signed with domestic firms to transfer APG produced in the oilfields, one of which has already become operational.
The private Iranian Tamkar Gas Equipment Company set up a gas compressor station for collecting flare gases of Parsi Oilfield near Ahvaz in the southern Khuzestan Province in April with a production capacity of 212,000 cubic meters of natural gas per day.
The station collects low-pressure flare gases of Parsi Oilfield and curbs the burning of between 85,000 and 212,000 cubic meters of flare gas a day. Following the compression of flare gas, it will be returned to NIOC’s facilities to be injected into Karanj Oilfield in the province.
Alipour noted that curbing APG from 23 other oilfields with a capacity of 130 mcm/d is also on the agenda, the tenders for which will be floated in the near future.
Maroun Oilfields
Jahangir Pourhang, director of Maroun Oil and Gas Production Company, said 15 mcm/d of APG from Maroun-3 will be delivered to Hirbod Niroo Company under a five-year deal.
"The APG will be transferred to the company's high-pressure gas compressors and compressed natural gas stations to produce light gas and natural gas liquids," he added.
The official said Tamkar Gas Equipment Company will receive 14 mcm/d of APG from Maroun-6 Oilfield, which has signed a similar five-year deal with MOGPC.
"Maroun-3 is planned to go on stream by the end of the summer and Maroun-6 will become operational in January 2019," he said.
Mansouri Oilfield
Mohsen Dahanzadeh, managing director of Karoun Oil and Gas Production Company, said 10 mcm/d of APG from his companies operative fields will be sold to Hirbod Niroo under a five-year deal.
Mansouri Oilfield is operated by KOGPC.
The project is planned to go on stream by the end of the current fiscal that ends in March 2019, he added. Alipour said APG will be transferred to gas compressor stations to produce natural liquid gas and light.
The Oil Ministry is studying several ways of curbing APG levels, collecting it for injection into oil and gas wells, converting APG into petroleum products such as natural gas liquids and using APG for electricity generation. Khuzestan's governor general said that in addition to shutting down the flare torches and preventing the wastage of national resources, such projects will help prevent large amounts of harmful emissions from releasing in the environment.
According to Alipour, "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."
