Cost-Cutting Operation at Offshore Oil Platform

Domestic experts managed to recondition a gas turbine on an offshore oil platform in a technically complicated operation that precluded unwanted costs by $2.5 million.

Ahmad Ebrahimi, director of operations and production at Bahregan Oil Center in Bushehr Province, said on Tuesday the overhaul of a platform at the offshore Soroush Oilfield in the Persian Gulf was implemented by a group of 15 Iranian experts, the official portal of the National Iranian Oil Company reported.

Ebrahimi noted that only 50 million rials (about $1,500) were spent to purchase new parts to overhaul a Siemens SGT-500 gas turbine on the platform, preventing repair costs amounting to $2.5 million.

"Electricity is commonly supplied by gas turbines to offshore oil and gas rigs that are typically expensive to maintain and operate. Three 17-megawatt gas turbines are installed on the said platform," he said.

"The Iranian Offshore Oil Company, which operates the field, decided to hand over the overhaul project to a local group of specialists."

Discovered in 1962 some 83 kilometers off Kharg Island in the Persian Gulf, Soroush Oilfield was severely damaged during the Iran-Iraq war (1980-88), which brought its oil production (14,000 barrels per day) to a halt. In 2002, it restarted production with a capacity of 100,000 bpd.

The platform is IOOC’s sole rig on which extraction, processing and desalination of Soroush and Norouz oilfields’ output are being carried out. Two grades of oil are being exported from Soroush field.