Iran Lost $1.5 Billion of Its Liquefied Gas Alone in South Pars Through Flaring
According to the Farsi News Agency based on a financial report from the South Pars Gas Complex, export limitations on liquefied petroleum gas “LPG” and the filling of storage tanks for this hydrocarbon from November 2018 to the end of that year caused 3 million tons of liquefied gas produced from 6 gas refineries to be wasted in pipelines.
Liquefied gas, after oil and petrochemical products exports, is the third major source of Iran’s export revenue.
Details of 2018 customs statistics show that the average export price of the country’s liquefied gas that year exceeded $500 per ton. That same year, Iran exported $5.3 billion worth of petroleum gases (propane, butane, and others).
Thus, the loss of 3 million tons of liquefied gas resulted in a $1.5 billion loss for Iran. Of course, this is only part of energy resource waste in Iran.
World Bank statistics and official reports from Iran’s Oil Ministry show that in 2018, approximately 17.7 billion cubic meters of the country’s produced gas was burned in flares at the same production stage and wasted.
Part of Iran’s gas is produced from oil fields, which is called “associated gas.” Iran, due to failure in investment and technology acquisition, cannot collect a significant portion of associated gases produced from oil fields and burns them in flares.
The value of this amount of gas at 2018 regional price rates is approximately $4.5 billion and at the rates of East Asian and European markets exceeds $5.5 billion, and of course the cost of its air pollution is not less than the value of this gas.
Based on World Bank statistics, Iran’s share of global gas flaring is approximately 13 percent and, with only a slight difference, ranks third globally after Russia and Iraq.
Thus, in 2018, Iran suffered approximately $6 billion in losses solely from gas flaring and liquefied gas waste in South Pars pipelines, and on the other hand, burning these gases annually produces tens of millions of tons of greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide, causing air pollution and global warming.
The Global Carbon Project reported that last year Iran, with the production of 780 million tons of carbon dioxide, held the sixth position globally in terms of greenhouse gas emissions, of which 76 million tons was directly due to gas flaring in oil fields.
This, along with other factors, has caused Iran, alongside the United States and Saudi Arabia, to have the worst performance in reducing greenhouse gas emissions globally.
Source: Radio Farda
