Pars Oil and Gas Company, a subsidiary of the National Iranian Oil Company, signed a $900m contract Saturday with domestic company Iranian Offshore Engineering and Construction Company to develop Kish Gas Field, the second largest in the Persian Gulf after South Pars.
In addition to producing 11,000 barrels of gas condensates, the project will produce 28 million cubic meters per day of sour gas in 14 months, the Oil Ministry news service Shana reported.
The project entails laying a 32-inch 200-kilometer subsea pipeline from Kish Island in Hormozgan Province to onshore refineries in Asalouyeh in Bushehr Province. Moreover, 14 wells will be drilled on the site of the project.
As the world's fifth biggest offshore gas field, the Kish reserves were discovered in 2006 and is believed to hold an estimated 1.7 trillion cubic meters of natural gas in situ of which 1.4 tcm are recoverable. It also contains more than 500 million barrels of gas condensates.
Located 30km east of Lavan Island, the giant gas field's development plan includes three phases and upon completion of the last phase, close to 120 mcm/d of gas can be extracted from the field.
According to the POGC public relations office, special pipes using corrosion resistant alloys (CRAs) will be used for the field, which are widely used in the petroleum sector.
The field will have a 70% extraction rate in the first phase and produce 28 million cubic meters of natural gas and 11,000 barrels of gas condensates per day as soon as the first phase becomes operational.
Unlike South Pars (shared with Qatar), Kish is fully inside Iranian maritime borders near the Strait of Hormuz. Given its strategic location, it is being seen as a major gas hub in the oil-rich region.
“This and other contracts show that the (US) sanctions have not stopped us. Our oil, gas and petrochemical industries are functioning,” Javad Owji the Oil Minister said.
SP Phase 11
According to Hamidreza Masoudi, the contractor of SP Phase 11, development operations to lay subsea pipelines and install the platforms of Phase 11 of the South Pars Gas Field in the Persian Gulf have gained momentum.
"The jacket of platform B is already in place and the offshore platform [SPD 11B] is expected to be hauled from Qeshm Island and installed on its location soon," Hamidreza Masoudi was also quoted as saying by IRNA.
Pointing to the implementation of pipe-laying projects to connect the offshore deck to onshore refining facilities in the port city of Asalouyeh, he noted the 100-km-long 32-inch pipes are being laid as planned.
Petropars Group, which is in charge of developing the phase, has been using parts and equipment produced by Iranian manufacturers and the services of domestic companies in various sectors, as it aims to enhance the country's technical and engineering capabilities, he added.
Phase 11 is the only one among the 24 phases of the giant joint field in the Persian Gulf, which has not been developed yet. Iran shares the field with Qatar.
The Phase 11 development project includes the construction and installation of the jacket and topside of the phase, drilling 12 wells and laying pipes on the seabed from the phase’s platforms to onshore refineries.
Masoudi said about 12,000 meters of drilling operations to dig four production wells have been carried out, while it is estimated to reach 15,000 meters.
An estimated 14 million cubic meters of natural gas per day will be extracted from the phase by the end of the current Iranian year (March 2021-22).
Emphasizing the need to start early production from the phase, Masoudi said, “The producers of pipelines have been selected and pipe-laying operations will begin after the approval of the National Iranian Oil Company.”
French Total S.A. had signed a $5 billion agreement in 2016 to develop SP Phase 11 as the head of a consortium that included China National Petroleum Corporation and Petropars.
