Thanks to the South Pars Phase 19 development operations aimed at completing processing units and boosting natural gas extraction from offshore platforms, gas production and sweetening in this phase have exceeded 18 million cubic meters a day, contractor of the South Pars Phase 19 said on Sunday.
"The third gas sweetening train of Phase 19 will go on stream by the end of August, making it possible to refine 43 mcm of sour gas per day," Hamidreza Masoudi was also quoted as saying by IRNA.
Elaborating on technical issues, Masoudi added that with the help of National Iranian Oil Company, Oil Ministry and Pars Oil and Gas Company, Phase 19 has played a pioneering role among other South Pars developing ventures.
Platform 19C and 19A have already been installed with the help of domestic Oceanic 5000 crane ship and plans have been made to launch Platform 19B in the near future.
Pointing to the completion of offshore pipelines to transfer gas to Phase 19 refinery, the official said, "SPD2 and 19C platform gas is injected to the national grid after being sweetened in the first and fourth gas sweetening trains."
According to Masoudi, NIOC has exported 1.3 million barrels of gas condensates, extracted from Phase 19, to target destinations in the last four months.
Compliance With Standards
Asked about the compliance of Phase 19 with environmental standards, the official said as soon as regeneration compressors become operational, the associated petroleum gas burned off in gas flares will decline drastically.
APG is a form of natural gas found in petroleum deposits. It is often released as a waste product. When it is burned off in flares, it is referred to as flare gas.
Masoudi noted that as soon as the third and fourth sulfur recycling trains come on stream, not only will the huge amount of sulfur be separated, but also harmful gas components will be minimized dramatically.
The development project of Phase 19, currently under construction by a consortium of Petropars Limited, Petropars Iran and IOEC under an engineering, procurement and construction contract, is among priority plans of South Pars.
Once fully operational, Phase 19 is estimated to produce 50 mcm/d of gas as well as 75,000 barrels of gas condensate, 1 million tons of liquefied natural gas and 1 million tons of ethane per year.
Iran has close to 34 trillion cubic meters of natural gas reserves, which is around 18% of the total global gas reserves. This means Iran has the potential to become a major player in the natural gas market when the sanctions are lifted by the yearend.
The country is planning to boost gas production capacity from around 430 million cubic meters per day at present to 1 billion cubic meters a day in 2017 and 1.2 bcm/d by 2020. South Pars is the world’s largest gas field, shared by 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 that measures 6,000 square kilometers.
