Iran inaugurated a gas processing complex on Wednesday, February 28, that will help the country to stop flaring gas worth of million of dollars.

According to Iranian officials, the complex of Hengam Oilfield in Qeshm island located in southern Iran can process 827 million cubic meters per day of natural gas which was previously flared.

Iranian news sources say that the complex has been developed by domestic “contractors, manufacturers and advisors” and will generate $700,000 per day by injecting gas into the national gas pipelines.

Hamid Bovard, the managing director of Iranian Offshore Oil Company, said the gas processing complex of Hengam Oilfield will save Iran over 300 million dollars annually, once fully operational.

The project was funded with $85m which, according to Bovard, will return in less than a year.

According to the latest gas flaring data published by the World Bank in July 2017, Iran is among the countries that is showing an overall increase in global flaring in recent years, largely caused by lack of technology and investment. World Bank says that satellite data shows an increase in flaring in Iran of more than 4 billion cubic meters in 2017 compared to previous year.

Bijan Namdar Zangeneh, Iran’s Oil minister has previously announced that Tehran needs $5 billion investment to stop flaring gas at oilfields.

With 600 million tons of CO2 and ca. 200 million greenhouse gases per year, Iran is among 10 biggest producers of greenhouse gases in the world. Flaring gas at oil fields that contains high level of sulfur is partially responsible for this problem.