“Units including steam boilers and gas condensates storage facilities have become operational and other sections namely instrument air unit and gas sweetening trains are near completion,” Mohammad Mehdi Tavassolipour was quoted as saying by the Oil Ministry news agency.
Construction of the overall facility has made 85% progress, he said, and added that the refining unit is equipped with six water boilers with 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 giant SP 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.”
Tavassolipour said the offshore section of the phase is complete and all the decks are functioning. It has four platforms, each with a capacity to produce 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.
"Given the importance of extracting Iran's share from the joint field and achieving the goals of the project, including daily production of 56 million cubic meters from four platforms, it was decided to focus on the offshore sector.”
With the help of domestic engineers, drilling operations for gas wells, laying offshore pipelines and installing four offshore platforms were completed in 2020. So far 22.5 billion cubic meters of gas has been taken out from Phase 14, sweetened and injected into the national network via the free capacity of refineries in phases 12 and 19.
Besides 56 million cubic meters of gas, the phase produces 75,000 barrels of gaseous condensates and 400 tons of sulfur per day.
It also produces LPG and ethane (one million tons a year) for domestic use and for feedstock to petrochemical companies in the Pars Special Energy Economic Zone in Bushehr Province.
Storage Units
In related news, IRNA quoted Mohammad Meshkinfam, managing director of Pars Oil and Gas Company, a subsidiary of the National Iranian Oil Company, as saying that three gas condensate storage units in Phase 14 are ready for launch.
“The facilities will help the gas refinery store 1.5 million barrels of condensates, which can then be transferred to target destinations (the Persian Gulf Star Refinery in Bandar Abbas) via a pipeline to be converted into high value added products such as gasoline.”
According to the official, the project (storage units) was implemented in five years as per three EPC (engineering, procurement, and construction) contracts.
"The tanks were built by Machine Sazi Arak Company in Markazi Province," he said, adding that Nardis Company was in charge of welding and providing equipment for construction work.
South Pars gas complex produces 680,000 barrels of gas condensates a day, 360,000 barrels of which is delivered to the PGSR to produce gasoline.
“Gas condensate is also sold to petrochemical plants in Asalouyeh and Mahshahr in the south as feedstock and offered at the Iran Energy Exchange.”
Gas condensate is a low-density mixture of hydrocarbon liquids present as gaseous components in raw natural gas produced from gas fields.
Iran is in the process of raising gas output (850 million cubic meters per day so far) and expects to add one billion cubic meters by March.