"The two companies will gradually harness associated petroleum gases from oilfields in Aghajari, Gachsaran and Ahvaz over the next three years,” Ahmad Mohammadi said in Tehran on Sunday, IRNA reported.
The captured APG will be supplied to Bidboland 2 Gas Refinery in Khuzestan (14.4 million cubic meters per day) and Marun Petrochemical Company (7mcm/d), Mohammadi said, adding that an estimated 68 mcm of APG burns out in the southern oilfields.
PGPIC (Iran’s largest petrochemical company with 60 subsidiaries) and Marun Petrochemical Company will invest $1 billion and $167 million respectively to manage the hazardous gas from oilfields in the south, according to Financial Tribune.
Negotiations are also underway with Bakhtiari Petrochemical Refinery Complex in Masjed Soleyman for the same purpose in the oil province.
"The gas is used as feedstock in petrochemical companies but is also injected into oilfields to raise the recovery rate," he said, noting that to keep recovery rates high in at least 12 hydrocarbon reserves in Khuzestan, namely Karanj, Nargesi, Parsi, Koupal and Ramshir, they are injected regularly with natural gas.
Flaring is the burning of natural gas that cannot be processed or sold. Flaring APG is a key safety measure at many oil and gas production sites, as it prevents industrial equipment from exploding. Nonetheless, burning high levels of APG is a major source of air pollution.
Optimizing energy consumption and reducing environmental pollutants are major concerns in the oil and gas industries in most oil producing nations. As the only known way to curb waste of energy and emission of pollutants in the oil and gas industry is flaring, efficiently managing APG is crucial.
According to a World Bank report, oil production sites around the world are burning approximately 140 billion cubic meters of natural gas annually, of which 400 mcm is in Iran alone.
NISOC is responsible for the development of 28 oilfields in the southern and southwestern regions.