The World Bank in a report has ranked Iran as the third country with the highest volume of natural gas flared in oil sector projects.
Figures released by the World Bank show Iran flares 10.5 billion cubic meters (bcm) of gas each year, Press TV reported.
The country follows Russia which is the world's largest gas-flaring country (35 bcm/y) and frontrunner Nigeria (15 bcm/y). After Iran are Iraq (10.4 bcm/y), the United States (5 bcm/y) and Algeria (4.9 bcm/y).
Oil producing countries often burn — or flare — a certain volume of natural gas that accompanies crude oil to the surface which is too small to be recovered or pipelined to a processing facility. This is already seen as an unwelcome development given the hazardous air pollutants that are emitted during the flaring of associated gas.
Therefore, countries including Iran are already pushing ahead projects to collect the gas and use it for onsite combined heat and power production.
The bulk of Iran's gas-flaring occurs at southern oilfields and the air of areas in which this takes place is often polluted.
Iraq is pushing ahead a major project in the south to collect flare gas from the region's fields.
The project that was awarded to Shell in 2011 through a contract worth $17.2 billion is expected to provide enough natural gas for the country to satisfy a major share of its domestic needs. It envisages capturing and processing gas from major oilfields such as Rumaila, West Qurna phase 1, and Zubair — all located near Basra.