In line with plans to boost gas output from South Pars Gas Field in the Persian Gulf, the second offshore platform of the field’s Phase 14 was installed with flying colors.
According to Hamidreza Masoudi, director of the phase, the satellite platform 14C will add over 500 million cubic meters [14.1 million cubic meters] to the giant field’s production capacity, Shana, Oil Ministry’s portal, reported on Friday.
The official noted that the gigantic structure, weighting 2,200 tons, has been built by domestic experts in the yard of Iran Marine Industrial Company, aka Sadra, in Bushehr.
The platform, loaded on September 2, was transferred and installed in less than four days using the 124 FLB crane barge.
With the new gas structure in place, the phase’s production capacity has reached 1 billion cubic feet (28.2 mcm), which equals a South Pars standard phase’s output rate.
Operations to install platform 14A were performed in January after it was completed in Iran Shipbuilding and Offshore Industries Company’s yard, a subsidiary of Industrial Development & Renovation Organization of Iran.
“ISOICO is completing platforms 14B as well as satellite platform 14D in its shipyard,” Mansour Moazzami, managing director of IDRO, said.
“Phase 14 onshore utility units, namely processing trains, sulfur recycling plants and gas injection units linked to Iran’s Gas Trunkline, are up and running.”
Phase 14 is slated to produce 56 million cubic meters of gas and 75,000 barrels of gas condensates per year to meet domestic gas demand and supply feedstock to petrochemical units in the Pars Special Energy Economic Zone in the southern Bushehr Province.
Accordingly, Phase 14 has two gas production lines with four platforms (14A and 14B as main platforms and 14C and 14D as satellite ones), which are due to go on stream simultaneously. The phase will also produce 400 tons of sulfur, 2,800 tons of propane, 80,000 barrels of condensates and 2,550 tons of petrochemical feedstock, once it becomes fully operational.
The phase’s products will be used to meet domestic gas demand and supply feedstock to petrochemical units in the Pars Special Energy Economic Zone in the southern Bushehr Province.
Reportedly, no foreign contractor is involved in Phase 14 and it is the only project in South Pars that has being undertaken by domestic experts. The development contract of Phase 14 worth $5.25 billion, is signed between the National Iranian Oil Company and a consortium headed by IDRO.
The contractors have laid close to 230 kilometers of subsea pipelines. Operations to drill 22 wells have already been completed while the rest is underway.
The South Pars mega gas project is being developed in 24 phases and except for Phase 11 that has not been developed yet, other phases such as 13, 22, 23 and 24 will become operational by the end of 2019.
