The first sweetening train of the Phase 14 refinery in the giant South Pars Gas Field will come on stream in the winter, the Oil Ministry’s news agency Shana reported.
Units, including steam boilers and gas condensate storage facilities, have become operational in the phase and other sections, namely instrument air unit and gas sweeteners, are near completion. The construction of the overall facility has made over 85% progress.
The refining unit is equipped with six water boilers with a combined capacity of 160 tons of steam per hour.
The boilers were built by Iran's top engineering and energy enterprise MAPNA Group. Boilers are among the central systems of a refinery.
The South Pars field in the Persian Gulf has 24 phases, all but Phase 11 are up and running. Since no more refineries will be built for this section, Phase 14 refinery is the last onshore processing facility in the huge field that Iran shares with Qatar.
The offshore section of the phase is complete and all the platforms are functioning. It has four platforms, each with a production capacity of 14 million cubic meters of gas per day.
Because the new refinery is still under construction, sour gas from the phase is supplied to refineries in phases 12 and 19.
In addition to 56 million cubic meters of gas, the phase produces 75,000 barrels of gaseous condensates and 400 tons of sulfur per day.
It also supplies LPG and ethane (1 million tons a year) for domestic use and as feedstock to petrochemical companies in the Pars Special Energy Economic Zone in Bushehr Province.
84% of SP Wells Operational
In related news, managing director of Pars Oil and Gas Company said out of the total of 39 platforms in South Pars, 37 platforms are operational and of the total 400 wells in the field, 84% or 336 wells are active.
“The remaining two platforms in Phase 11 are expected to become complete in the next two years,” Mohammad Meshkinfam was quoted as saying by Shana.
Meshkinfam stated that the amount of investment in South Pars Field has been about $80 billion over the past 20 years.
“About 70% of the country's gas are supplied from South Pars,” he added. Iran is producing about 1 billion cubic meters of gas per day, about 700 million cubic meters of which are supplied by SP.
Shana reported that Deputy Oil Minister for Petrochemical Affairs Behzad Mohammadi said currently 50 development projects are underway in the petrochemical industry, of which 19 projects are based in Asalouyeh.
“About 50% of the production of petrochemical industry depend on South Pars. The share of Pars Energy Special Economic Zone in the current 90 million-ton capacity of petrochemical industry is 45 million tons,” he said, adding that the main petrochemical products are exported.
“Petrochemical production capacity is expected to reach 136 million tons per year by 2025 while the sector’s annual revenue will reach $36 billion from the current $21 billion,” Mohammadi said.