COVID-19 Delays South Pars Projects

EghtesadOnline: Hook up operations on offshore decks of phase 13 (SPD 13A and 13C) of South Pars Gas Field in the Persian Gulf have been delayed due to problems created by the coronavirus, managing director of Pars Oil and Gas Company said.

News ID: ۷۴۹۸۶۶

18 April 2020

“As soon as the two rigs (13A and C) start production, close to 28 million cubic meters per day of gas will be added to the field’s total output which has now reached 700 mcm/d,” Mohammad Meshkinfam was quoted as saying by IRNA.

According to Financial Tribune, the two rigs (each weighing 2,500 tons and manufactured by Iran Marine Industrial Company, SADRA,) were installed on their designated sites in the Persian Gulf in March, but they have not started to extract gas yet.

Phase 13 has four decks, two of which (13B and 13D) were launched in 2018.

Referring to Phase 11, he noted that the platform jacket for the phase is ready in Qeshm Island and was supposed to be installed in the last fiscal which ended in March.

“Nevertheless, spread of the respiratory illness (COVID19) has delayed work.”

Phase 11, which is the last phase of South Pars Gas Field, is near the Iran-Qatar joint water frontier.

Phase 11 is scheduled to be developed in two integrated and consecutive stages. Stage one will consist of drilling 30 wells plus fabrication and erection of two production platforms. Each stage will contain 15 wells and produce 56 million cubic meters of gas per day plus 75,000 barrels of gas condensate.

This will require construction and installation of two 32-inch pipelines jointly stretching over 270 kilometers.

Petropars is in charge of developing Phase 11. In 2017 the project was assigned to this company in cooperation with Total of France and CNPC of China. However, due to mounting US pressure and tough economic sanctions in 2018, the two companies fearing America’s wrath walked away from the mega deal.

Eventually a decision was made last October to cede development of Phase 11 to Petropars and draw on domestic potential and capability to get the job done.

Phase 11 gas output will be pumped to refineries in Asaluyeh and Kangan in Bushehr Province.

According to the official, production from the giant gas field has reached 700 mcm/d -- up 7.5% compared to last October.

SP is divided into 24 phases in the first stage. Most of the phases are now operational.

The field, which Iran shares with Qatar, covers an area of 9,700 square kilometers, 3,700 square kilometers of which (South Pars) are in Iran’s territorial waters. The remaining 6,000 square kilometers (North Dome) is in Qatari territorial waters.

The field is estimated to contain large deposits of natural gas, accounting for almost 8% of the world’s known reserves, and approximately18 billion barrels of condensates.