To increase the collection and processing of associated petroleum gas from the southern oilfields, two contracts were signed between the Persian Gulf Bidboland Gas Refinery and three domestic manufacturing firms namely Oil Turbo Compressor (OTC) Group, MAPNA Turbine Engineering and Manufacturing Company (TUGA) and Energy Industries Engineering and Design (EIED) Company in Tehran on Monday, managing director of the refinery said.
“The agreements are worth $200 million and will boost processing of APG from the East and West Karoun oil fields that include several large oilfields straddling the Iran-Iraq border by at least three million cubic meters a day,” the Oil Ministry news portal Shana quoted Mahmoud Aminnejad as saying.
The deal was signed by Aminnejad, Majid Bahmani the head of TUGA, Mansour Yazdanpanah, the head of OTC and Mohammad Ali Ghafarzadeh, the EIED chief.
The first contract worth $125 million was concluded with EIED to collect flare gas from Rag Sefid Oilfield in southern Khuzestan Province and transfer it the Persian Gulf Bidboland Gas Refinery in the province, he noted.
“Collecting APG from oil and gas fields is a priority of the Oil Ministry in the framework of the policy to safeguard the environment, curb the loss of national wealth and create jobs.”
Collection APG is an important safety measure at many oil and gas production sites as it prevents industrial plant equipment from over-pressuring and exploding.
Iran has made verifiable progress in using flare gas for power generation and feed refineries. Published reports say the government so far has invested $5 billion in eco-friendly projects.
However, despite the progress, Iran has the highest rate of energy waste in the form of APG in the Middle East and ranks third in the world in terms of gas flaring after Russia and Iraq.
Founded in 1997, EIED specializes in developing national and international upstream oil industry projects.
APG, or flare gas, is gas dissolved in oil. It is a mixture of hydrocarbons obtained from oil extraction and separation processes. The gas can be utilized in a number of ways after processing: as feedstock for the petrochemical industry and for gas distribution networks.
APG from the Bidboland treatment plant is used as feedstock for petrochemical plants in the region.
Bidboland plant is operating with gas processing capacity at 56 million cubic meters a day and produces 3.4 million tons of petrochemical feedstock annually.
Centrifugal Compressors
Referring to the second $75 million agreement, Aminnejad said OTC and TUGA will manufacture 24 centrifugal compressors for trapping the flares.
Compressors provide pressure for transporting gas via pipelines and lift oil in gas-lift operations.
OTC will make 16 compressors for the Bibi Hakimeh-1 Oilfield in Kohgiluyeh-Boyerahmad Province and Aghajari oilfield in Khuzestan.
TUGA has agreed to build eight compressors for APG collection from Bibi Hakimeh-2 in Kohgiluyeh-Boyerahmad. Established in 1998, TUGA specializes in designing and manufacturing turbines and auxiliary equipment.
In related news, Mohammad Reza Naderi, head of the Health, Safety and Environment Department of the National Iranian South Oil Company, said the firm collects more than 19 million cubic meters of APG a day in collaboration with private companies in line with plans to cut flaring in the southern and southwestern regions to zero.
“Several environmental projects have been defined and carried out in recent years with the help of private companies to trap APG,” Naderi said.
Future plans call for collecting 1 million cubic meters of APG per day from the Parsi Oilfield and 620,000 cubic meters from the Maroun field among others.
“Another important project of the Persian Gulf Petrochemical Holding Company is the daily collection of 17 million cubic meters of gas from Aghajari and Gachsaran fields to supply part of the feed to Bid Boland Persian Gulf Gas Refinery that came on stream in February,” he added.
In the last calendar year (ended March 20) about 85% of APG was collected from the oil-rich southern regions. NISOC is responsible for developing 28 oilfields in the two southern regions.
