An oil official revealed that Iran has launched negotiations with two large German companies, namely Siemens and MAN, on renovating power plant installations of Iran’s oil industry in the Persian Gulf.
“Due to anti-Iran sanctions, European companies declined to sell equipment related to power production, including turbines, which gave rise to many problems in supplying electricity to oil rigs on Sirri Island,” Hamid Reza Sajjadi, director of Sirri power plant at Iranian Offshore Oil Company, told Mehr News Agency.
"To address the problems, IOOC started a new round of negotiations with the two German companies."
Siemens AG, founded in 1847, is a German multinational conglomerate company headquartered in Berlin and Munich and the largest engineering company in Europe. The company’s revenues were estimated at €75.63 billion ($83.97 billion) in 2015.
The engineering company MAN was one of the top 30 companies listed on the German stock exchange until September 2012. The company operates through fully-owned subsidiaries or joint ventures with local companies in India, Poland, Turkey, China, the United States, the UAE, South Africa, Uzbekistan, Portugal and Austria.
Sajjadi noted that electricity is supplied to oil installments by three aging power plants of Sirri, Ilam and Farab, adding that the company plans to raise power production capacity.
“Some representatives of Siemens are expected to visit the oil-rich island to hold talks over supplying or repairing gas turbines of Sirri power plants,” he said.
Sirri Island is situated 76 kilometers from Bandar Lengeh and 50 km west of Abu Musa Island in the Persian Gulf. The oilfields near the 5.6-km-long island have the production capacity of 150,000 barrels per day. The main oilfields of the zone include Alvand, Esfand, Sivand, Dena and the joint field of Nosrat.
Sajjadi stressed that some turbines of the aging power plants of Sirri and Ilam are so dilapidated that they need to be replaced with new ones or undergo fundamental changes.
The chief of Sirri power plant said the company calls for utilizing SGT400 turbines, which are manufactured by Siemens, adding that this model has technical and operational advantages over other models.
Referring to a plan on constructing a 175-megawatt power plant on the Persian Gulf island, which has been approved by IOOC’s board of directors, Sajjadi said the plant is due to be designed and built by IOOC in two phases.
“By renovating, upgrading or rebuilding turbines, Sirri’s power production capacity reaches over 40 MW and when the new plant goes on stream, a reliable electricity supply will be created to help implement new oil and gas projects,” Sajjadi said.
Iran's nominal power generation capacity stands at around 74,000, with 61,000 MW coming from thermal power plants, 12,000 MW from hydroelectric plants and only 1,000 MW from nuclear power.
Plans call for increasing the country's electricity generation capacity by 5,000 MW a year to reach the 50,000 MW target by 2025.
