Hamidreza Masoudi said 4,500 meters of the offshore well was dug as a part of the development project of this phase.
“The first phase entails drilling four horizontal wells, which are in place and operations to drill two vertical wells are expected to end in April,” IRNA quoted him as saying.
All six wells will be connected to the first wellhead jacket installed recently. An estimated 14 million cubic meters of natural gas per day is expected to be taken from the phase by the end of the year.
Regarding funding, he said $15 million has been invested and $70 million more is needed to complete the first phase of the scheme by early next year.
“Part of the funds will come from selling bonds.”
Seven more wells will be dug in the second phase. Installation of the first wellhead jacket was over last December.
The jacket of Platform B hauled from Qeshm Island reached its destination 135 km off Asalouyeh coast Bushehr Province in October, and the installation process was completed in two months.
This was the first of two jackets of Phase 11, which allows drilling 12 wells near the Iran-Qatar maritime border. Phase 11 is the only one among the 24 SP phases whose development was delayed.
The National Iranian Oil Company signed a contract for developing Phase 11 with an international consortium of France’s Total, China’s CNPCI and Iran’s Petropars in July 2017. However, the foreign companies pulled out soon after former controversial US president, Donald Trump, imposed an economic blockade in 2018 and the project was taken up by Petropars alone.
When fully operational, the phase will produce 56.6 million cubic meters of gas per day plus 75,000 barrels of gas condensate. Gas will be transferred to onshore refineries in Asalouyeh and Kangan in Bushehr Province.
The giant gas field, which Iran shares with Qatar, spreads over 9,700 square kilometers, 3,700 square kilometers of which are in Iran’s territorial waters and the rest in Qatari waters.
With an estimated 14.2 trillion cubic meters of gas reserves in place plus 18 billion barrels of gas condensate, the Iranian side of the field accounts for 40% of Iran’s total estimated 33.8 tcm of gas reserves and 60% of its gas production.
Iran holds the world’s second largest gas reserves after Russia. According to BP Statistical Review of World Energy, Iran has 34 trillion cubic meters of natural gas reserves or 18% of the world’s proven reserves.
Phase 19
“Iranian engineers have set up the refrigeration compressor at the 10th refinery of South Pars Gas Field Phase 19 for the first time in Pars Special Economic Energy Zone on the northern shores of the Persian Gulf.”
According to Masoudi, Phase 19 complies with all health, safety and environment (HSE) protocols ratified by the NIOC.
Phase 19 is one of the few South Pars phases designed with advanced equipment for curbing associated petroleum gases that are burned off in flares.
A refrigerant compressor serves two purposes: it provides suction to maintain the desired reaction temperature, and compresses and cycles the isobutene that is flashed as refrigerant in order to cool the feed hydrocarbons to the desired reaction temperature.
According to Masoudi, Petropars engineers got the job done without foreign involvement. “The fourth turbo-expander of Phase 19 has been set up by local engineers” and helps in the separation process of ethane from methane, Masoudi noted.
A turbo-expander or an expansion turbine is a centrifugal or axial-flow turbine through which high-pressure gas is expanded to drive a compressor or generator.
With these facilities new units in the refinery as well as LPG storage tanks have become operational and helped increase the production of butane by 1,250 tons and propane by 2,000 tons per day.
Petropars was founded in 1998 to help develop the vast energy resources and is one of the leading contractors of upstream oil and gas projects. It has recently been tasked with the development of the giant South Azadegan Oilfield in Khuzestan Province and Belal Gas Field off the Persian Gulf.