To fast track gas production in the South Pars Gas Field in the Persian Gulf, the first offshore platform of the field's Phase 13 was installed on Wednesday.
According to Payam Motamed, operator of Phase 13, platform 13B, weighing 2,200 tons, was installed on the jacket with the help of the domestic floating crane HL-5000, the National Iranian Oil Company's news portal reported.
The operator said after hook up operations are completed later in the month, the platform can go on stream and produce 14 million cubic meters of natural gas per day, which equals “almost half the capacity of a standard South Pars phase.”
Asked about platform13D, which was loaded simultaneously with platform 13B last month, Motamed said, "The satellite platform has been transferred to its destined location off the Persian Gulf coast on a FLB 124 barge, and if the weather allows it will be installed in a few days."
Both topsides, each with extraction capacity of 14 mcm per day, were constructed at Iran Marine Industrial Company (also known as SADRA) in the northwest of the strategic waterway.
Phase 13 consists of offshore infrastructure, including 38 wells, four platforms and four pipelines stretching over 90km as well as onshore facilities, including four gas refining units.
Once all four units are operational, the phase will produce 56 million cubic meters of natural gas per day. Plans call for extracting 2,900 tons of liquefied petroleum gas, 2,750 tons of ethane, 75,000 barrels of ultra light crude, also known as condensate, and 400 tons of sulfur.
South Pars, known as North Dome in Qatar, is being developed in 24 phases.
Phase 13 is in line with plans to raise natural gas output to 1.1 billion cubic meters per day by 2021.
National gas production capacity stands over 850 million cubic meters a day. Supplies from South Pars account for nearly two-thirds of the total.
