Construction of South Pars phases 17 and 18 platforms is completed and will be delivered to the employer by mid-June and it will receive gas via the sea. The production and sweetening capacity of the two phases have increased after completion of onshore and offshore facilities; as a result 18 million cubic meters of gas from phases 6 to 8 is sweetened per day in this refinery.
Oil Minister Bijan Namdar Zanganeh says the two phases will be launched officially this year and will lead to daily production of 50 million cubic meters of natural gas, 80,000 barrels of gas condensate, 400 tons sulphur plus annual production of one million tons of ethane and 1.05 million tons of liquefied gas.
Pointing to the focus of the Marine Facilities Co. on construction projects underway, project manager of phases 17 and 18 Amir Mombeini says," Our company built five platforms simultaneously last year, among which were the phase 17 and 18 platforms."
According to Mombeini the new platforms will generate five million dollars a day. Emphasizing that technically speaking, the last five months were the most challenging periods, the manager reiterated, "Given the pledge to the oil company to finish the project in five months, most funding was allocated to this project. Regarding precision and keeping up with the schedule, we set a record in building phase 18 platform. Needless to say, sanctions had compounded our difficulties and the oil minster wanted the phases to go on stream as soon as possible."
Tehran is under punitive economic sanctions because of its nuclear program. After marathon talks in Lausanne, Switzerland, Iran and the P5+1 (Britain, China, France, Russia, the US plus Germany) reached a framework agreement on April 2 that calls for lifting all trade sanctions against Iran. The details of the agreement are to be finalized by a June 30 deadline.
The project manager has been quoted by Shana as saying that phases 17 and 18 platforms each weighs up to 2350 kilograms and their gas processing capacity amounts to 500 million cubic feet per day. They were built totally by Iranian contractors; furthermore, 60 percent of the equipment was manufactured domestically.
Mombeini blames slow development of South Pars projects for mismanagement mostly, although he believes the effect of sanctions should not be ignored.
South Pars is the world's largest gas field, shared between Iran and Qatar, covering an area of 3,700 square kilometers of Iran's territorial waters in the Persian Gulf. It adjoins Qatar’s North Field, which measures 6,000 square kilometers.
