Pipe-laying operations from Bandar Aftab (Garzeh) in Bandar Lengeh County, Hormozgan Province, to Kish Island for supplying natural gas to the island has begun, head of Kish Gas Field development project said.
“Laying the 32-inch gas transmission pipeline will be completed in 20 days. Work on the 16-km started on Saturday,” Mehr News Agency quoted Abdullah Mehrabi as saying.
Late in July shore-pull operation for 2 km of subsea pipeline of the Kish-Garzeh offshore gas pipeline project in the Persian Gulf was carried out.
Shore-pull method is used for a near-shore pipe installation that is perpendicular to the shoreline by pulling pipeline from the shore. Pipe is welded on a lay barge where the end of the pipe to shore set with a pull head.
With completion of the shore-pull operation, Iran Offshore Engineering and Construction Company has started work on the remainder of the pipe-laying process using a C Master vessel, a pipe-layer owned by the IOEC, which is the contractor of the project.
The pipeline that will supply natural gas to Kish Island is the country's longest undersea gas pipeline. It branches off from the seventh national gas transmission line (Iran Gas Trunkline 7).
About 90 km of pipeline has already been laid from IGAT7 to Garzeh Port in the southern province. The subsea pipeline will reach the northern coast of Kish and from there a 10-km surface pipeline on the island will be laid.
IGAT is a series of large diameter pipelines transferring gas from refineries in the south to different parts of the country.
IGAT7, 56 inches (1,420 mm) in diameter, interconnects east of Assalouyeh in Bushehr Province to Sarkhoon Refinery in Hormozgan Province and transfers gas from South Pars Gas Field to Hormozgan, Kerman and Sistan-Baluchestan provinces.
South Pars is the world's largest gas field, shared between Iran and Qatar, covering 3,700 square kilometers of Iran's territorial waters in the Persian Gulf.
Production from the giant field has reached 700 million cubic meters per day or about 80% of the country's total gas output.
Gas from the field is transferred via marine pipelines to onshore refineries and from there distributed across the country through nine main transmission lines (IGAT1-9).
*** Power Plants a Priority
Providing gas to two thermal power plants is a priority and later gas will be sold to industries, commercial centers and households. The project is expected to be completed next year.
Kish Island's electricity network is not connected to the national grid. There are two power plants on the island, with total generation capacity of 230 megawatts.
A part of the feedstock for the plants comprises associated petroleum gas from Sirri Oil Field in the Persian Gulf. Diesel and mazut is also used.
The gas project from IGAT7 will help stabilize fuel supply to the power plants. Providing gas to the plants will cut consumption of liquid fuels by 500,000 liters per day.
Kish is a 91.5 square kilometer picturesque resort off the southern coast of Iran. Given its free trade zone status, the island is seen as a consumer's paradise, with numerous malls, shopping centers and tourist attractions.
Kish Island is the third most-visited vacation destination in Southwest Asia, after Dubai and Sharm el-Sheikh. Foreign tourists entering Kish Free Zone do not require a visa.
However, as in most tourist destinations in the world, the coronavirus pandemic has reduced Kish tourism to a trickle in the past few months.
