Iran’s state-owned National Iranian Oil Company (NIOC) has reported that Iran’s flare gas waste has declined 25% compared with 2019’s figures, according to the Tehran Times. 

According to NIOC’s Managing Director Masoud Karbasian, “One of the important measures taken by the company in the field of environment is to prepare reports on the emission of flare gas wastes, which shows a 25% decrease compared to the previous year.”

The commercialization of flare gas would enable Iran to diversify energy resources, providing funds for power plants and industrial units. There is also the potential to export the flare gas to other countries.

Concerted efforts are being made to eradicate this environmentally harmful practice and National Iranian South Oil Company’s (NISOC) director, Ahmad Mohammadi, previously said that the country’s southern oil fields will stop wasting flare gas within three years.

In 2019, around 16 billion cubic meters (bcm) of flare gas was burnt in the country that could have been alternatively utilized for economic benefit such as power generation. One 2019 project cited as contributing towards a reduction in gas flaring was NISOC’s project to collect 18 to 20 million cubic meters per day (mcm/d) of flare gases.