Equipment needed for the completion of South Pars Gas Field’s Phase 20 platform have entered Iran’s Khorramshahr Yard after being released by an unnamed producer company.
“The unblocked equipment, which include isolation tanks for water and hydrocarbon, were necessary for the construction of the platform,” Alireza Ebadi, director of the two phases, was quoted as saying by Shana.
Ebadi added that the equipment, which are an important part of the piping system of the platform, have been installed in the yard.
Ali Akbar Shabanpour, managing director of Pars Oil and Gas Company, had earlier announced that the first batch of high-tech turbines and compressors blocked by Siemens due to international sanctions was released and unloaded in Asalouyeh, Bushehr Province
Oil Minister Bijan Namdar Zanganeh had also said some 30 turbines and compressors were blocked by Siemens, which would be used not only in South Pars Gas Field facilities but also in Iran's LNG and Persian Gulf Star refineries.
Underscoring the technical complication of the installation of isolation tanks on the platform’s structure, he said that installation operations have been completed.
Ebadi pointed to the key role of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action in the clearance of the equipment and said all activities related to the phase were suspended under the sanctions regime.
“After the removal of international sanctions against Iran and restoration of relations with foreign companies, most of the needed equipment, such as turbo-expanders, electric valves and liquefied gas pumps, were ordered,” he said.
Stressing that plans call for the launch of South Pars’ phases 20 and 21 in the current Iranian year (ending March 20, 2017), Ebadi said the hookup operations of the platform of Phase 21, which would extract over 28 million cubic meters per day, have commenced and the phase will go on stream by mid-December.
South Pars is the world's largest gas field shared between Iran and its Arab neighbor Qatar.
“The platform of Phase 20 will be transferred to South Pars from Khorramshahr Yard in mid-September,” he said, adding that in February 2017, the platform, with a gas production capacity of 28 million cubic meters, will be connected to the onshore refinery.
In February, Iranian media reported that the Canadian government had given the green light for the release of a blocked turbine belonging to Fajr Jam Refinery, Iran's second-largest gas refinery in Bushehr Province.
The turbine was reportedly sent to Rolls-Royce in Canada for repair before the international embargo was tightened in 2011 and 2012, which hindered Iran's industrial and energy projects.
