To develop the giant South Azadegan Oilfield in Khuzestan Province, Petropars company has completed the first phase of a central oil treatment plant under an engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) contract signed with the National Iranian Oil Company.
Costing $300 million, the processing facility has a capacity of 320,000 bpd and was built in eight months, the Oil Ministry news portal reported.
Work entailed construction of a central treatment and export plant (CTEP), a fire-fighting facility, a permanent camp and warehouses. The plant is designed to process six million cubic meters of natural gas annually as feedstock for Bandar-e-Imam Khomeini Petrochemical Plant in Ahvaz.
The NIOC signed a contract with Petropars last July to develop the oilfield. The $1.3 billion contract calls for raising output to 320,000 barrels a day by 2023. The field’s daily production has increased to 140,000 bpd from 45,000 in 2013.
Outlining provisions of the deal, he said the project includes drilling 35 wells, installing 50 electrical submersible pumps on production wells, constructing and upgrading ground facilities, designing enhanced oil recovery methods and laying 450-km of oil and gas pipelines.
CTEP separates gas, water, salt, sulfur and other raw materials from crude oil which is then transferred to the West Karoun pumping station.
The extracted gas (17,000 cubic meters per day) is compressed and transferred to a natural gas liquid plant in Khuzestan Province (NGL 3200). The waste fluids from the processes is injected into service wells for safe disposal.
To implement the CTEP project in the first phase, oil and gas was collected from wells by 10 central collection and separation units.
Located 100 km west of Ahvaz, South Azadegan is estimated to hold 27 billion barrels of oil in place, of which 1.7 billion barrels are extractable. It is part of the West Karoun oil block in Khuzestan.
West Karoun – a priority region for raising crude production to restore Iran’s market share it lost to international sanctions, includes Mansouri, Yaran, Yadavaran as well as North and South Azadegan joint fields. The block holds an estimated 67 billion barrels of oil in place.
Petropars was founded in 1998 to contribute to the development of vast energy resources. It is one of the leading contractors of upstream oil and gas projects.
Caption: South Azadegan is estimated to hold 27 billion barrels of oil in place.
