Tapping into the huge helium reserves in the giant South Pars Gas Field off the Persian Gulf is on the Oil Ministry’s agenda and operations will start in the near future.
Mohsen Khojastehmehr, managing director of the National Iranian Oil Company, made the statement on the sidelines of a ceremony to sign a contract with the Academic Center for Education, Culture and Research or Jihad Daneshgahi, a subsidiary of the non-government Supreme Council of Cultural Revolution, in Tehran on Tuesday.
“As per the contract worth $275 million, Jihad Daneshgahi was assigned to build skid-mounted processing units and mobile oil treaters compliant with international standards,” he said, adding that helium extraction from SP will start soon.
The NIOC chief said Iran has massive helium resources, and it should not meet its needs by importing the odorless and non-toxic gas from Qatar, the UAE, China and Turkey.
The gas field is estimated to hold 40% of the world’s helium reserves and NIOC will sign an agreement with a knowledge-based firm that has cutting-edge technology to separate helium from methane,” he said, without providing any details.
Helium extraction process starts with natural gas that is at least 0.3% helium by volume. It then undergoes a number of industrial processes that filter impurities like water, hydrogen sulfide and carbon dioxide from the gas.
75% of global helium consumed globally are largely limited to two locations, one of which is the South Pars Gas Field shared between Iran and Qatar. The other location is in the US
The resulting gas then undergoes cryogenic processing to cool down the gas to -260 degrees centigrade and remove methane from it, resulting in a helium that is about 50% pure. It is then put through one final cooling and filtering process that leads to the 99% pure helium.
According to Gasworld.com, 75% of global helium consumed globally are largely limited to two locations, one of which is the South Pars Gas Field shared between Iran and Qatar. The other location is in the US.
Qatar has been extracting helium since past four years while Iran’s only concern was to raise natural gas output to meet domestic needs.
Unlike other industrial gases, helium cannot be harvested from atmospheric air. Helium is predominantly extracted by processing natural gas processing.
In 2012, the Oil Ministry underlined helium production as a top priority and commissioned Pars Oil and Gas Company, a subsidiary of NIOC, to implement the project, but it never saw the light of the day.
The world's helium reserves are estimated to be 40 billion cubic meters.
In 2015, the US led the helium market in terms of production, followed by Qatar, Algeria, Russia, Poland and Australia.
Helium has a host of applications, including as a coolant in magnetic resonance imaging machines in hospitals and nuclear reactors, although its best-known commercial use is in balloons.
