The signing ceremony of the contracts was attended by Oil Minister Bijan Namdar Zanganeh, Shana, the Oil Ministry’s news agency, reported.
Based on the contracts, Persian Gulf Petrochemical Industries Company and Marun Petrochemical Company will implement 32 plans to renovate and upgrade NISOC’s installations for flare gas collection in the next two and a half years, which will save 22 million cubic meters of natural gas per day.
APG is a form of natural gas found in deposits of petroleum. It is often released as a waste product and burnt off as flare gas, according to Financial Tribune.
Mohammad Mostafavi, an NIOC official, said the collected APG will be supplied to the under-construction Bidboland-2 Gas Refinery (14.4 mcm/d) and Marun Petrochemical Company (7 mcm/d).
In addition, NISOC’s output of natural gas liquids will increase by 38,000 barrels per day, which will be delivered to Bandar Imam Petrochemical Company as feedstock.
Natural gas liquids are components of gas separated in the form of liquids. This separation occurs in a field facility or in a gas processing plant through absorption, condensation or other method.
“Thus, petrochemical plants will receive 1.6 million tons of ethane and other heavier gaseous compounds per year, which is a big leap toward alleviating the shortage of feedstock,” Mostafavi said.
He stressed that the feedstock is worth $1.3 billion, resulting in producing materials worth $2.6 billion per annum in the petrochemical complexes.
Mostafavi noted that about 2.8 mcm/d of flare gas are burning in Masjed Soleiman in Khuzestan Province, which will be collected by a petrochemical complex in the city.
According to a World Bank report, a great deal of gas flares at oil production sites around the world burn approximately 140 billion cubic meters of natural gas annually, releasing more than 300 million tons of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere.
Around 17 billion cubic meters of gas are burned off in Iran annually, which means a $4-6 billion loss for the country, according to published reports.