The drilling of wells at Phase 11 of South Pars Gas Field in the Persian Gulf is near completion and it is expected to start production in winter, managing director of the National Iranian Oil Company said.
“All the required equipment has been supplied and the platform of the phase will soon be installed,” Mohsen Khojastehmehr was also quoted as saying by Mehr news agency.
Petropars Group, which is in charge of developing the phase, has been using parts and equipment produced by Iranian manufacturers and the services of domestic companies in various sectors, as it aims to enhance the country's technical and engineering capabilities.
Phase 11 is the only one among the 24 phases of the giant joint field in the Persian Gulf, which has not been developed yet. Iran shares the field with Qatar.
The Phase 11 project includes the construction and installation of the jacket and topside of the phase, drilling 12 wells and laying pipes on the seabed from the phase’s platforms to onshore refineries.
An estimated 14 million cubic meters of natural gas per day will be extracted from the phase by the end of the current Iranian year (March 2023).
When fully operational, the phase will produce 56.6 million cubic meters of gas per day plus 75,000 barrels of gas condensate. Gas will be transferred to onshore refineries in Asalouyeh and Kangan in Bushehr Province.
Phase 14 Refinery
Khojastehmehr noted that the construction of Phase 14 refinery in Asalouyeh, Bushehr Province, will be over by the end of the year at a cost of $2.5 billion.
The development of the refinery has made over 90% progress and efforts are underway to launch its first sweetening train as soon as possible.
Units, including steam boilers and gas condensate storage facilities, have become operational in the phase and other sections, namely instrument air unit and gas sweeteners, are near completion.
The refining unit is equipped with six water boilers with a combined capacity of 160 tons of steam per hour.
The boilers were built by Iran's top engineering and energy enterprise MAPNA Group. Boilers are among the central systems of a refinery.
With the completion of the refinery, the development of the world's largest gas field in Iran, which holds 8% of the world’s natural gas reserves and about 18 billion barrels of gas condensate, would conclude after more than two decades.
The offshore section of Phase 14 is complete and all the platforms are functioning. It has four platforms, each with a production capacity of 14 million cubic meters of gas per day.
Because the new refinery is still under construction, sour gas from the phase is supplied to refineries in phases 12 and 19.
Phase 14, which is an important part of the 9,700-square-kilometer joint field, supplies a part of the gas required by the country in different sectors by producing 56.6 million cubic meters of natural gas, 75,000 barrels of gas condensate and 400 tons of sulfur.
