“The project to harness and transfer the associate petroleum gas to offshore facilities (started in 2017) is almost complete and will become operational soon,” Amir Shaqaqi was quoted as saying by the National Petrochemical Company's news portal.
Close to 6.5 million cubic meters of gas are burnt off in flares in this field every day that will be soon transferred to Kharg Petrochem Plant and Kharg NGL Plant, he noted.
Flaring is the burning of natural gas that cannot be processed or sold. Flaring of APG is an important safety measure at many oil and gas production sites, as it prevents industrial plant equipment from over-pressuring and exploding, Financial Tribune reported.
He said operations to reduce gas emissions from the oilfield started in 2015.
Forouzan Field has 53 wells and is linked with Marjan Oilfield of Saudi Arabia. It is located 100 kilometers southeast of Kharg Island.
Oil from this field is transferred to onshore installations via a 20-inch offshore pipeline for storage at Kharg Island Oil Terminal. It was discovered in 1966 with estimated in-place reserves of 2.309 billion barrels of crude.
Referring to the Kharg NGL Plant, he said in 2017 a contract (worth $940 million) was signed between the Iranian Offshore Oil Company and SAFF Offshore Industries Company to start a public-private partnership (PPP) on the build, operate and transfer (BOT) basis. The plant will go on stream in one month.
SAFF was also tasked with collecting, separating and sweetening APG from the Forouzan joint field in Bushehr Province.
“After completion of the project SAFF can generate return on investment by selling propane, butane and pentane, and higher molecular weight hydrocarbons till 2051”.
The NGL venture is among initiatives to collect and utilize natural gas burnt off in the southern oil and gas fields.
An NGL plant is designed to process gaseous hydrocarbons, including ethane, propane, butane and pentane. When processed and purified into finished byproducts, all of it is collectively referred to as natural gas liquids or NGL.
Highlighting the need and significance of zero flaring projects to ensure zero hydrocarbon discharge into the environment, experts say the flaring of gas contributes to climate change and impacts the environment through emission of carbon dioxide, black carbon and other pollutants.
It also wastes valuable energy resource that can should be used for sustainable development in producing countries.
According to a World Bank report, thousands of gas flares at oil production sites around the world burn approximately 140 billion cubic meters of natural gas annually, causing more than 300 million tons of carbon dioxide to be emitted into the atmosphere.