Iran's gas wastage through flaring has increased by "32 percent"

In its latest report, the World Bank reported a 32% increase in gas flaring in Iran.

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

World Bank statistics show that the amount of gas losses due to Iranian flaring last year was about 17.4 billion cubic meters, while this figure was about 13.2 billion cubic meters in 2020.

This amount of gas is more than the country's total gas exports, and its value in regional markets reaches more than $5 billion per year. Former Iranian Oil Minister Bijan Namdar Zanganeh announced in 2019 that $5 billion in investment is needed to stop flaring of associated gases.

Iran ranks third in the world in terms of torch burning, after Russia and Iraq, and with this, every Iranian is considered one of the most polluting citizens in the world per capita.

This is while Iran faces a severe gas deficit during the cold seasons of the year, and stopping flaring could add 48 million cubic meters per day to Iran's gas production.

Last winter, Iran faced a daily deficit of 250 million cubic meters of gas, equivalent to Türkiye's entire gas consumption.

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

Source: Radio Farda