South Pars platform 18B has been fully constructed by domestic technical and engineering workforce at an estimated cost of $160 million, which is $10 million less than what international enterprises had asked for, the managing director of Iran Shipbuilding & Offshore Industries Company said on Saturday.
“The platform, which was loaded successfully from the Bandar Abbas shipping yard, is capable of receiving 14 million cubic meters of natural gas and transferring it to the onshore refinery for processing," Hamid Rezaeian was also quoted as saying by Shana.
Underscoring the fact that fixing the platform on the barge before it is taken to the location will last 15 days, the official said, “Plans have been made to finish the offshore installation in five months. In other words, the processed natural gas from platform 18B will be injected to the natural gas national grid by the end of November.”
According to the official, the design and construction operations as well as loading and installation of the much-needed platforms for phases 17 and 18 have been completely indigenized for the first time with the help of Iranian specialists.
"Not long ago, foreign oil giants like Shell and Total played a key role not only in building but also in installing the platforms," he said, noting that relying on experiences gained in recent years, ISOICO experts are capable of constructing complicated platforms in less than two years unless financial constraints impede their progress.
Rezaeian noted that quality-wise, what they manufacture is compatible with international standards.
"ISOICO's shipyard, located near the Strait of Hormuz 37 km west of Bandar Abbas, is capable of constructing bulk carriers, containerships and oil product carriers using advance technology," he added.
Platform 21
According to reports, loading platform 21, weighing 2,700 tons, being carried out in Khorramshahr fabrication yard, will end early next week.
"Plans to launch five more South Pars phases by the end of the current Iranian year (started March 20) are high on the agenda of the National Iranian Oil Company," Ali Akbar Shabanpour, managing director of Pars Oil and Gas Company, said.
"As soon as these phases go on stream, natural gas extraction from joint fields will increase by 142 million cubic meters per day to reach 572 mcm," he said, noting that the current daily extraction from the gas field exceeds 430 mcm.
"Phases 17 and 18 are designed to produce 50 million cubic meters of gas per day. So far, 22 wells have been drilled in the offshore sector of the two phases to deliver natural gas to onshore processing facilities through a 220-kilometer pipeline," Shabanpour said.
According to Hamidreza Masoudi, contractor of Phase 19, 60% of Phase 19 refining complex equipment have been produced domestically. The first platform of Phase 19 was transferred to its location a year ago and since then 7 mcm of processed natural gas have been injected to the national grid per day with the help of SPD2 satellite platform.
Iran is planning to boost gas production capacity from 430 million cubic meters per day at present to 1 billion cubic meters a day in 2017 and to 1.2 bcm per day by 2020.
