Head of Department of Environment (DOE), Ali Salajegheh, made the remarks noting that burning associated gases is not only a kind of wasting assets but it creates air pollution in the south of the country and that is why stopping burning gases of stacks is one of the main plans of the government which, to a great extent, has been implemented successfully so far. 

“The 13th administration has inherited a tough economic and social situation from the past; despite this it has spent 5 billion dollars in bringing into a halt burning associated gases of 54 flares and will continue to do so until it stops gas flaring completely.”, the official said.  

The petroleum ministry has spent as much as 5 billion dollars to stop gas flaring in the south part of the country and as the person who is in charge of protecting the environment, I would like to appreciate the move, the DOE head said.

 Elsewhere in his remarks, Salajegheh said that burning fuel oil is one of the concerns of people. He continued: Maybe the pollution coefficient of fuel oil is lower than that of many other fuels, but from a psychological point of view, there is a debate among people that fuel oil is a heavy fuel, creating a lot of pollution.

The DOE's head said the government approach was based on decreasing fuel oil burning and “we hope that all the related bodies will fulfil their legal duties.”

Earlier this month, the managing director of the National Petrochemical Company (NPC), Morteza Shahmirzaie, told Shana the process of gathering associated gases will accelerate this year so that the majority of petrochemical complexes' gas flares will be turned off at the end of the current Iranian calendar year on March 20 2025.

Visiting Assaluyeh, the host of gas processing plants south of Iran, NPC’s managing director added that NPC plans to pursue the gathering associated gases program more seriously this year.

“Generally, gas flares play the role of safety valves, so that when there is an emergency situation, they start burning to prevent occurrence of an incident and when there is a stable situation their burning is contained” NPC’s managing director said.

He went on to say that in a year which has been named as the year of Production Leap Through People’s Participation, petrochemical projects will bear fruit one after another.