Azerbaijan, Baku, Feb.3 / Trend F.Mehdi/
Associated gas flares have been put out at four Iranian oilfields in the Persian Gulf, leading to the saving of 104 million cubic feet of natural gas, the Mehr News Agency quoted National Iranian Oil Official Abdolazim Nadimi-Farrokh as saying.
He referred to the inauguration of the NGL plant in the Siri Island, located in the Persian Gulf, adding that in addition to preventing from burning gases associated with oil, the plant will produce 10,000 barrels of gas condensates per day.
The Siri NGL project includes Siri-Qeshm pipeline, Siri-Kish pipeline, Siri NGL plant, and Kish gas pressure boost station that cost $450 million.
The NGL project will save Iran around $1 million per day out of not burning gases associated with oil.
In September 2012, National Iranian Gas Company's managing director Javad Oji told the Mehr news agency that Iran will implement a plan for putting out flares at gas refineries by the end of the end of the fifth five-year development plan (March 2016), aiming to reduce energy consumption at gas refining facilities.
He added that 25 million cubic meters of gas will be saved at gas refining units.
Associated gases can bring benefits for the country, but they are flared up and burden huge losses to the nation, instead.
Some 40 million cubic meters of associated gas in oilfields are burnt daily.
Iran has allocated $2 billion to collect associated gas at Kharg and Bahregan oil regions, the deputy oil minister for engineering affairs said in November 2011.
Hamdollah Mohammadnejad told the Shana news agency that the sum will be spent to collect 17 million cubic meters of associated gas.
He added that different projects, worth around $500 million, have been developed for collecting up to 99 percent of associated gases.
Some $15 billion cubic meters of associated gas is burnt at Iran's oilfields, bringing the country around $3 billion of loss annually.
Since 2001, Iran's annual imports of gas have been more than exports by nearly 71 billion cubic meters on the average, the Pana news agency reported. Iran is the second major holder of gas deposits in the world.