Iran’s Gas Flaring Has Increased by 32 Percent

The World Bank reported in its latest report a 32 percent increase in gas flaring in Iran.

Iran, due to lack of investment in equipment for collecting associated gases (gas extracted along with oil from oil fields), burns and wastes a significant portion of its gas production at the production stage in flares.

World Bank statistics show that Iran’s gas losses from flaring last year amounted to approximately 17.4 billion cubic meters, while this figure was about 13.2 billion cubic meters in 2020.

This amount of gas exceeds the country’s total gas exports and its value in regional markets reaches over 5 billion dollars annually. Bijan Namdar Zanganeh, Iran’s former oil minister, announced in 2019 that 5 billion dollars of investment is needed to stop flaring of associated gases.

Iran ranks third globally in gas flaring after Russia and Iraq, and through this practice, each Iranian per capita is counted among the world’s most polluting citizens.

This is while Iran faces severe gas shortages in cold seasons, and stopping gas flaring could add 48 million cubic meters per day to Iran’s gas production.

Last winter, Iran faced a daily gas shortage of 250 million cubic meters, equivalent to Turkey’s total gas consumption.

The World Bank says that last year, the amount of gas flaring in the world was approximately 143 billion cubic meters. Thus, 12 percent of all gas flaring globally is related to Iran.

Source: Radio Farda