President Ebrahim Raisi inaugurated several petrochemical, gas, water and power projects in the Pars Special Economic Energy Zone in Asalouyeh, southeast of Bushehr Province, worth an aggregate of $3.5 billion on Thursday and Friday.
The projects included the South Pars Gas Field’s Phase 14 Refinery, nine tanks to store petrochemical goods, Damavand Petrochem Plant, Pars glycol complex, Besat combined-cycle power station, desalination units and power transmission plans, IRNA reported.
Giving a breakdown, Oil Minister Javad Owji noted that close to $2.7 billion were invested in SP Phase 14 project that will return completely in less than two years.
The completion of other ventures, including Asalouyeh storage tanks, utility units in Damavand Petrochemical Plant, Pars glycol complex and Besat power plant, were carried out at an estimated cost of $95 million, $110 million, $300 million and $140 million respectively.
The South Pars Gas Field in the Persian Gulf has 24 phases. Since no more refineries will be built for this section, Phase 14 refinery was the last onshore processing facility in the huge field that Iran shares with Qatar.
“The development of the long-delayed SP Phase 11 is underway, which will also become operational in April,” Owji said.
The Phase 11 development project included the construction and installation of the jackets and topsides of the phase, drilling 12 wells and laying 115-km-long 32-inch pipelines to transfer monoethylene glycol and liquefied natural gas to onshore plants for processing.
There are 37 offshore rigs in the gas field and close to 705 million cubic meters of natural gas and 800,000 barrels of condensate are extracted from the field on a daily basis.
Referring to petrochemical initiatives, he noted that there are 21 petrochem plants in PSEEZ whose feedstock is supplied by SP.
Utilization of Resources
PSEEZ was established in 1998 for the utilization of South Pars oil and gas resources and encouraging commercial activities in the field of oil, gas and petrochemical industries.
“Around 2.3 trillion cubic meters of gas worth $414 billion have been extracted from the gas field over the last 25 years,” he said.
According to the oil minister, the storage capacity of petrochemical goods in Iran’s largest petrochemical hub has doubled after nine storage tanks became operational.
“Close to 774,000 cubic meters of petrochemical goods can be stored in the region now,” he said.
Owji noted that three methanol storage tanks with a capacity of 360,000 cubic meters, two tanks with an ethylene glycol storage capacity of 48,000 cubic meters and one container for storing 6,000 cubic meters of diethylene glycol came on stream on Thursday.
“The first steam unit of the Besat combined-cycle power station was connected to the national power grid and the power station’s efficiency reached 50%, up 25% compared to the time when it only ran on natural gas,” he said.
Built over 3 hectares, the facility is equipped with three gas units, each of which has the capacity to generate 160 megawatts of power.
“The steam unit has added 175 megawatts of power to the national grid,” he added.
Two more steam units will be synchronized with a national electricity network soon and increase the plant’s output capacity to 500 MW.
The president also inaugurated three desalination plants, namely Borazjan, Vahdatiyeh and Siraf, with a total capacity of 60,000 cubic meters per day.
Located in southwestern Iran, the arid province is one of the most water-stressed regions. The conditions in the province are so bad that water authorities have to dispatch water tankers to several areas (especially in the summer).
Persian Gulf Coastline
Bushehr is located along the Persian Gulf coastline. However, due to a lack of desalination plants, 65% of Bushehr’s water are supplied by neighboring provinces, such as Kohgilouyeh-Boyerahmad, through rusty pipes laid 25 years ago, because of which around 40% of water are wasted.
Meanwhile, the filling of Baghan Dam in Jam County and Akhand Dam in Asalouyeh started on Friday.
As there are not sufficient dams in the province to collect the surface water after torrential seasonal rains, annually 2.5 billion cubic meters of the runoff pass through cities and villages, and directly pours into the Persian Gulf, harming farmlands and damaging urban and rural infrastructure on the way.
The dams will help store surface runoff in different parts of the province. Due to drought and severe water shortages in the region, the construction of storage dams will help collect the runoff and transform challenges into opportunity for the struggling agro sector.
Known as an industrial province, Bushehr is home to major refineries and power plants. The sole nuclear power plant is also in this province. The giant South Pars Gas Field is located in Asalouyeh County.
Bushehr is one of the most water-stressed regions. Conditions are so bad that authorities have been forced to transport water in tankers.
The province has a 937-kilometer coastline alongside the Persian Gulf. Bushehr, Asalouyeh, Kangan, Genaveh, Dayyer and Deylam in this province have one port each.
Bushehr Port, the main port facility in the province, has the capacity to handle more than 7 million tons of goods per year and can host vessels weighing over 30,000 tons.
The port is capable of offering services for bulk, containerized, general and petrochemical cargos, refrigerated products, raw materials, storage and processing of various commodities and passengers, according to the Ports and Maritime Organization of Iran.
