Oil money that went up in smoke; Iran and the wound of torch burning

According to Energy Press, while leading energy countries such as Saudi Arabia use associated gas to feed profitable petrochemicals, Iran wastes a significant portion of this capital by flaring.
According to a new World Bank report, Iran, by burning about 23 billion cubic meters of natural gas per year, has a share of 15% of the total global flaring and is the second largest flaring country in the world after Russia; and this is despite the fact that Iran’s oil production is much lower than Russia’s.
Statistics show that in 2024, the total amount of flared gas in the world will reach about 151 billion cubic meters, the highest figure since 2007. This volume is equivalent to the annual production of countries such as the UAE or Norway and is estimated to be worth about $63 billion. Gas that could have been a source of income is being released into the air in many countries, including Iran.
The environmental consequences of this waste are also worrying. In this year alone, some 389 million tons of carbon dioxide and 46 million tons of methane were released into the atmosphere through flaring, creating an impact equivalent to the warming of an industrialized country like France. Nine countries, including Russia, Iran, Iraq, the United States, and Venezuela, are collectively responsible for more than 75 percent of global flaring, while producing less than half of the world’s oil. This suggests that the problem is not simply high production, but inefficient resource management.