Navidsahand Company, a knowledge-based company in Tabriz, East Azarbaijan Province, has indigenized two advanced multistage centrifugal pumps used in the oil and gas industry, the managing director said.
“The vertically suspended pumps known as Vertical Line Shaft Multistage Process Pump (VS1) and Vertical Sump Pump (VS4) are intricate in terms of design and manufacturing. All stages of production are undertaken by domestic engineers from design, molding and casting, to testing and installation," Mir Boyouk Ehqaqi was quoted as saying by IRNA.
The pumps have passed the API 610 standard tests, Ehqaqi said, and added that the standards, defined by the American Petroleum Institute, specifies requirements for centrifugal pumps for application in petroleum, petrochemical and gas industries.
VS1 and VS4 pumps are an essential part of modern petroleum facilities with a flexible range of flow for liquids and at each stage of pumping the pressure rises. The more stages a pump has, the higher the final discharge pressure. They are also maintenance intensive requiring skilled workers to ensure continuous operation.
Established in 1998 in Shahid Salimi Industrial Town in Azarshahr – 33km from Tabriz, Navidsahand Company, a subsidiary of Iran Industrial Pumps Co., is active in design, manufacture, installation and commissioning high quality pumps including sewage electropumps, drainage electropumps, axial flow electropumps, double suction pumps and heavy slurry pumps.
“Pumps in the oil and gas industry function under extreme environmental conditions including extremely high temperatures and pressures, or extremely low pressures and cryogenic temperatures, depending on the specific application,” he said.
Strong and Durable
The pumps must be made of materials capable of withstanding tough operating conditions and be non-reactive to chemicals they are exposed to.
Material choice is often governed by the prevention of corrosion, oxidization and build-up on pump components. Some pumps must also be able to handle abrasive or volatile materials.
Failure of pumps in oil and gas applications can come at huge financial cost, and pose safety and environmental hazards, making the reliability and safety of pumps and systems extremely important.
In 2014, a committee was set up to pursue the production of 10 major categories of equipment for the key energy sector, including turbines, compressors, pumps, control valves, pipes, smart pigs used in cleaning the pipes, oil and gas measurement tools as well as equipment associated with health and safety.
Officials say domestic companies can meet 70% of the needs for oil and gas equipment despite their technological and financial limitations partly due to the economic blockade imposed in 2018 by former US president, Donald Trump.
In related news, Mohammad Mehdi Hashemi, director of 9th South Pars Refinery, was quoted by the Oil Ministry website as saying that amine pumps used in the natural gas industry have been indigenized by domestic engineers.
There are at least six gas sweetening trains in the gas processing unit and each needs two amine pumps, he added.
“The devices are used to pump amine to the contactor tower in which acid gases such as H2S and/or CO2 are removed from the sour natural gas flowing from offshore facilities.”
The 9th South Pars Refinery is the largest processing facility of SP Gas Field in the city of Asalouyeh, Bushehr Province.
If the pumps were not indigenized, the company would have to spend $450 million to replace each old machine, Hashemi said. The 9th SP Refinery processes 11% of Iran’s gas and supplies 16% of the total South Pars output.
The refinery is one of the 14 in Asalouyeh processing natural gas drawn from the giant SP Gas Field shared between Iran and Qatar.
Hashemi stressed that the production process at the refinery complies with health, safety and environment requirements.
Iran is also self-sufficient in manufacturing various types of pumps used in the key oil and gas industry, namely cryogenic pumps.
Cryogenic pumps, or cryopumps, are used for adding propane and butane gases to the refining processes.
