Seeking technologies that prevent the need to flare associated natural gas produced along with oil in remote oil fields has become a priority for the industry for both environmental and economic reasons. Six technically viable gas transformation technologies are evaluated via detailed processes simulations for two Iranian oilfields (case A with 10.5 MMSCFD of associated gas production; and case B with 69 MMSCFD). The technologies considered and compared for these field cases are: gas to hydrate (GTH), gas to liquid (GTL), electric power generation through combined heat and power method (CHP); compressed natural gas (CNG); liquefied petroleum gas recovery (LPG, which can be combined with the CNG option), and liquefied natural gas (LNG). Detailed cost analysis and short-term economic benefit to cost analysis for these alternatives technologies applied specifically to these two field cases reveal that CNG + LPG recovery is the lowest cost and most profitable alternative for both cases. CHP technology provides the second-best option in terms of cost and economic profitability. On the other hand, LNG applied to small-scale and medium-scale associated gas production provides the least attractive technology alternative for transforming associated natural gas production to avoid flaring.

出于环境和经济原因，寻求技术以防止需要燃烧与偏远油田中的石油一起生产的伴生天然气已成为该行业的优先事项。通过对两个伊朗油田的详细过程模拟（案例 A，伴生气产量为 10.5 MMSCFD；案例 B，伴生气产量为 69 MMSCFD），对六种技术上可行的气体转化技术进行了评估。这些现场案例考虑和比较的技术有：气水合物（GTH）、气液（GTL）、热电联产发电（CHP）；压缩天然气（CNG）；液化石油气回收（LPG，可与 CNG 选项结合使用）和液化天然气 (LNG)。对专门应用于这两个现场案例的这些替代技术的详细成本分析和成本分析的短期经济效益表明，CNG + LPG 回收是这两种情况下成本最低、利润最高的替代方案。CHP 技术在成本和经济盈利能力方面提供了次优选择。另一方面，应用于中小规模伴生气生产的 LNG 为改造伴生气生产以避免燃烧提供了最不吸引人的技术替代方案。