The development of South Pars Phase 12 has progressed according to plan and there is no problem with regard to inaugurating the project, the project manager Rasoul Fallahnejad said Thursday.
Media reports on Wednesday said that Phase 12 inauguration, scheduled for today, was canceled, adding that a planned visit by President Hassan Rouhani and Oil Minister Bijan Namdar Zanganeh was also postponed.
Rouhani and Zanganeh were supposed to officially inaugurate Phase 12 after visiting the Pars Special Economic Energy Zone (PSEEZ) in Assalouyeh, Bushehr Province, on Saturday.
According to Fallahnejad, the development of the phase is almost complete as the three main platforms – A, B and C – have started production. "Maybe we should do some minor changes to the process but this doesn’t mean at all that major work remains to be done on the site," Fallahnejad was quoted by ILNA as saying. He added that ethane supply delay, mentioned in some media reports as the main reason behind the delay in inauguration ceremony, was also not correct as ethane feeding was not included from the very beginning as part of operations to be conducted on Phase 12," he noted.
Reports say that a peripheral platform D may also be needed for South Pars Phase 12. Upon the full commissioning of these platforms, Iran's gas production from the giant gas field will rise about 81 mcm/d.
"We have all the refineries and other installations ready for commissioning," Fallahnejad asserted, adding that he had no knowledge on what grounds Rouhani's trip to the region was canceled.
Sulfur Delay Reports
The development project of Phase 12 includes a desulfurization plant with a daily capacity of 750 tons.
According to Fars news agency, the sulfur recovery plant, which is a major part of the environmentally-friendly operations in South Pars, has not yet been constructed.
However, Fallahnejad said that work has already commenced at the sulfur unit. "Around 2,200 tons of granulated sulfur has been produced here and we have even exported part of the output," he said, rejecting the reports.
According to Mahmoud Javadian, director of Petropars drilling, the number of wells already drilled on SP Phase 12 exceeds 41, among which, 31 wells at three platforms have started gas production or are ready for that process.
The number of wells in the phase has increased from 36 to 45; therefore, a fourth platform is needed to be constructed to fulfill the initially planned production capacity of 81 mcm/d of sour gas.
Phase 12 contains four percent of total gas reserves of South Pars, which is slightly less than one percent of the world's gas reserves.
Total monthly production from the field is valued at $327 million. Total sweet gas and gas condensate production stand at 6 and 8.8 million tons, respectively, generating more than $1.5 billion in revenues.
The field is estimated to contain 14 trillion cubic meters of gas and 18 billion barrels of gas condensate. Once fully operational, Phase 12 will see some 75 million cubic meters of sweet gas pumped into the national gas network.
It is located on the border with Qatar, in an area measuring 206 square kilometers. The offshore section is approximately 150 km from Iran’s coastline and the onshore section is located in the Tombak Region, 65km west of Assalouyeh.
