Before the summer has even ended and while the consequences of repeated power outages continue to weigh heavily on people’s lives and businesses, warnings have already emerged about gas shortages in the coming winter. In this context, Mohammad Jafar Ghaem Panah, executive deputy to Iranian regime president Masoud Pezeshkian, recently announced that Iran will face a daily natural gas shortfall of about 100 million cubic meters this winter. He emphasized that even if temperatures are not unusually cold, the country will still face an energy imbalance requiring careful management.
Factors such as aging infrastructure, declining pressure in gas fields, and a lack of investment have contributed to this situation. In addition, the burning of vast amounts of associated petroleum gas in flare stacks is one of the main causes of energy waste. According to the National Iranian Oil Company, about 80 million cubic meters of associated gas are produced daily in Iran, a portion of which is burned in flare stacks due to insufficient infrastructure.
Domestic reports also confirm the scale of these losses. According to the Iranian regime’s Parliamentary Research Center, about 50.5 million cubic meters of flare gas were burned each day in 2022, a volume roughly equivalent to the production capacity of two phases of the South Pars gas field and close to Iran’s daily natural gas exports that year. The center estimated the opportunity cost of gas flaring over a decade at approximately $33.79 billion and noted that collecting and exporting the gas flared in 2022 could have generated about $4.6 billion in revenue.
Iran’s Position Compared to the World and the Region
During oil extraction, a quantity of “associated gas” is released. If it is not collected and processed, it is burned in flare stacks to prevent the risk of explosions.
According to the World Bank’s Global Gas Flaring Tracker Report, Iran ranked second in the world for gas flaring in 2025, behind Russia. That year, Russia flared about 30.28 billion cubic meters of gas, while Iran flared about 29.93 billion cubic meters. In other words, Russia’s flaring volume was only about 1% higher than Iran’s, even though its oil production was estimated to be more than twice that of Iran.
The gap is even more pronounced in the “flaring intensity” indicator, which measures the volume of gas flared per barrel of oil produced. According to World Bank data for 2025, Iran flared about 19.55 cubic meters of gas per barrel of oil, compared with about 0.69 cubic meters for Saudi Arabia, 0.98 cubic meters for the United Arab Emirates, and 2.43 cubic meters for Qatar. These regional countries have invested in infrastructure to convert associated gas into electricity, petrochemical feedstock, and liquefied natural gas (LNG).
The Financial Cost of Gas Flaring
Research by the Iran Open Data Center shows that approximately 22.8 billion cubic meters of associated gas were flared in Iran in 2024, the highest annual volume on record. Based on European benchmark prices, the value of the wasted gas was estimated at about $9 billion, meaning an average of approximately $1.04 million worth of gas was burned every hour.
Between 2012 and 2024, Iran flared a total of approximately 203 billion cubic meters of gas. Based on the same benchmark, the cumulative value of this wasted gas is estimated at about $85.6 billion, equivalent to nearly one-quarter of Iran’s $341 billion gross domestic product in 2025. These figures indicate that over the 13-year period, an average of about $750,000 worth of gas was burned every hour.
Despite the passage of time, officials’ statements indicate that the trend continues. In February 2026, Iranian regime president Masoud Pezeshkian acknowledged that 50 million cubic meters of gas are flared each day in Iran, with an estimated daily value of about $17 million. According to him, every one million cubic meters of gas burned results in a loss of approximately $330,000.
Experts attribute the continued practice of gas flaring primarily to inadequate infrastructure, sanctions, and insufficient investment. The World Bank also emphasizes that the technology needed to capture associated gas already exists, and that the main obstacles are limited investment, inadequate market and pipeline infrastructure, insufficient regulations, and ineffective governance.
