“Weighing 2,400 tons, platform 14B was loaded on a barge off the Persian Gulf coast. The platform is expected to be installed by July, off the coast of Bushehr, 550 kilometers from its departure point,” he was quoted as saying by the public relations office of Pars Oil and Gas Company.
When operational, the platform will produce 14 million cubic meters of natural gas per day from the joint offshore field. Iran shares the gas field with Qatar.
Iranian engineers designed and built the platform and domestic manufacturers supplied 60% of the goods and equipment needed for the huge structure, Financial Tribune reported.
The phase is being developed to produce 56 million cubic meters of gas per day. It will also supply 2,550 tons of petrochemical feedstock daily to petrochemical units in the Pars Special Energy Economic Zone in southern Bushehr Province.
Producing 400 tons of sulfur, 2,800 tons of propane, and 75,000 barrels of gas condensate a day is among the declared goals of Phase 14.
Platforms Under Construction
“Construction of the fourth and last platform of the phase, 14D, has shown 91% progress at Iran Marine Industrial Company (also known as SADRA) in Bushehr,” Tavasolipour said.
Drilling operations in offshore wells are underway and will be completed by October, and Platform 14D will be installed by the end of this month.
By the end of the current fiscal next March, three more platforms from two other phases of South Pars will come online and add 50 mcm to the daily gas output from the field.
A satellite platform from Phase 13 and two platforms from phases 22-24 are currently under construction, each having a capacity to extract 14 million cubic meters of natural gas a day.
There are plans to produce 750 million cubic meters of natural gas from South Pars by 2022.
South Pars is the world’s largest gas field located on the joint border between Iran and Qatar, covering an area of 3,700 square kilometers of Iran's territorial waters in the Persian Gulf. Daily gas production on the Iranian side is 610 mcm while Qatar produces 600 mcm.
The field is being developed in 24 phases in Iran. Domestic gas production capacity is over 800 mcm a day. Supplies from South Pars make up nearly two-thirds of the total. More than $72 billion have been spent on the giant venture since work started two decades ago.