72 billion dollars damage of the governments to the country’s gas

According to Energy Press, flaring has a history of more than two decades in petrochemicals and at least fourteen decades in oil; From the time when gas was burned along with oil due to the lack of proper technology to use these gases, until today, when the energy imbalance has made even these gases, which were once not economical to contain, to be in an important position for the oil industry.

According to the report of the Ministry of Petroleum, the amount of burning gases associated with Iranian oil in 2022 AH was 18.43 billion cubic meters – about 12% of the world’s total flaring. This is despite the fact that the volume of natural gas produced in South Pars Phase 1 refinery this year was about 9 billion cubic meters. In fact, the cumulative volume of burner gases is equivalent to the capacity of about 2 phases of South Pars.

In a report sent to the judiciary last week, the parliament’s energy commission explained the country’s unprofitability from the wasteful burning of these gases as follows: “Assuming that the price of flare gas is equivalent to the average of exported natural gas and about 15 cents per cubic meter, the unprofitability caused by The burning of this amount of gas will be close to 3 billion dollars per year. Since the collection of flare gases has been included in the third development plan, that is, since 1999, in the program of the 8th to 13th governments, with the annual criterion of 3 billion dollars of non-profit, according to the calculation of the Parliament’s Energy Commission, the sum of this number reaches 72 billion dollars by the end of 2023. This is despite the fact that the price of gas has increased in the last two years and the increase in the price of gas has not been calculated.

Gases associated with oil production and flares are gases that are produced in oil and gas industries as gases associated with oil production or as a byproduct in oil and gas facilities. In general, based on the division of duties of the subsidiary companies of the Ministry of Oil, flare gases can be separated into gases associated with oil production (the field of activity of the National Oil Company), flare gases of gas refineries (the field of activity of the National Gas Company) and flare gases of oil refineries (the field of activity of the National Refining and distribution of petroleum products).

Burning this huge volume of gas, besides wasting a significant part of primary energy sources, releases millions of tons of gas equivalent to carbon dioxide, while releasing greenhouse gases and adverse climate changes, causing severe air pollution in the affected areas. On average, flaring causes the emission of more than 400 million tons of carbon dioxide equivalent in the world every year, which is equivalent to the pollution caused by 77 million passenger cars.