Oman Oil Refineries & Petroleum Industries Company (Orpic) has launched a multi-million dollar bidding round for the installation of a flare gas recovery project at the company’s Sohar refinery, said Trade Arabia.

“The use of the Flare Gas Recovery System (FGRS) in the facility will provide the dual benefits of energy conservation and emissions abatement by recovering, instead of flaring, process vent gases,” Orpic said in a statement.

“The basic processes employed in the (Flare Gas Recovery System) are the collection of flare gases from the liquid seal drum, compression of the gases, and physical separation. Gas compression is performed by liquid ring compressors and the separation of recovered vapour from a mixed liquid is accomplished in a horizontal separator vessel,” said the Orpic statement.

John Zink Hamworthy Combustion, a US firm that specializes in flare gas recovery systems, will provide the technology and basic engineering design for the project.

“Gas flaring has reduced because we are mandating the companies to take gas flaring very seriously and reduce it as much as possible by proposing different solutions,” Salim bin Nasser Al Aufi, Undersecretary at the Ministry of Oil and Gas, had previously told Times of Oman.

According to National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOOA) report Oman is one of the top 20 countries that flare, although progress had been made, flaring roughly 1.6 bcm in 2011 compared to 2 bcm in 2007.

Russia, Nigeria, Iran, Iraq and the United States are the top flarers in the world. Hence the World Bank initiative launched on April 17 for ‘Zero Routine Flaring by 2030.’