PERSIAN GULF WATERS, Assalouyeh - Platform construction industry has thoroughly been indigenized in Iran but the need for transfer of modern technologies into some sectors still exists, the deputy managing director in off-shore section of Pars Oil and Gas Company (POGC) told the Tehran Times on Tuesday.

“Today, our platform construction industry’s need has changed,” Farrokh Alikhani said on the sidelines of a ceremony to install the platform 18B of the South Pars gas field.

“The Islamic Republic is self-reliant in designing and construction of platforms and also in supplying fixed equipment as well as installation; however, to provide some commodities such as rotary tools including compressors there are still some needs to be fulfilled either by foreign companies or domestic ones.”

 “Iran has the base knowledge and domestic potential in platform construction industry and all the installed platforms to the present day observe HSE standards but the country warmly welcomes companies who are ready to provide us with advanced knowledge and up-to-date technologies,” the POGC official clarified.

In the press conference held for 18B installation, Alikhani noted that POGC has decided to install six new platforms of South Pars gas field by the end of the current Iranian calendar year (March 20, 2017), three of which including platform 18B (the 22nd platform of the giant gas field) have been installed successfully and the company will commence installation of the other three ones within the next 45 days.

Accordingly, the total number of installed platforms in South Pars will reach 25 by the end of the year, he added.

He underlined that South Pars’ gas production in Iranian year 1390 (2011-2012) stood at 250 million cubic meters per day (mcm/d), while the figure currently stands at 430 mcm/d and will reach 540 mcm/d following the operation of the said six new platforms by the yearend.

South Pars’ total output will eventually hit 820 mcm/d after having all of its 24 phases comprising 40 platforms operational in upcoming years, he said.

As formerly reported, the gas filed is divided into 24 standard phases, of which phases 1-10, 12, 15 and 16 are fully operational. Phases 17 and 18 as well as 19 are operating at half capacity.

Underscoring that it will take about four to five months for each platform to get operational, Alikhani reminded that “previously, when that we had foreigners as our partners in the projects seven months were required for having each platform online as of the installation, and the time duration [under Iranians’ management] is decreased to five months maximally.”

“The Oil Ministry and POGC have had rapid and safe expansion of South Pars gas field, especially exploiting joint fields, on their agenda and they have reached their primary goal so far, while meeting all the necessary HSE standards,” he asserted.

“Iran’s platform construction industry is mature now,” he announced.

‘Talks ongoing with foreign investors’

On the sidelines of the same event, the executive director of mega projects in the Industrial Development and Renovation Organization of Iran (IDRO) Masoud Golshenas informed the Tehran Times of some undergoing negotiations between IDRO and foreign investment companies for future cooperation in joint oil and gas projects in Iran. He, however, refused to mention any specific name of the foreign companies.

Golshenas, who was among the speakers in the press conference, as the representative from the operating company of Iran Shipbuilding & Offshore Industries Complex Company (ISOICO), expressed content that platform 18B was successfully installed, meeting all safety standards by Iranian experts in the industry.

“ISOICO, the body in charge of the platform construction and subsidiary company of the Ministry of Industries, Mining, and Trade, took advantage of the maximum capabilities and potentials of Iranian professionals to construct this platform and will do so in other off-shore platforms which are to be installed in future.”

“Platform 18B was 100-percent designed and constructed domestically although some specific equipment were imported,” Golshenas said, “Iran does not require foreigners’ participation in its platform construction industry.”

 ‘Platform 18B to start operation before winter’

Hassan Boveyri, the operator of South Pars phases 17 and 18 development project, who also addressed the press conference, described that the 2,300-ton platform 18B, with the capacity of producing 14 mcm/d of gas is the third installed platform in phases 17 and 18 and will become operational before winter.

“It took about nine million people per hour within 18 months to complete 18B’s construction,” he added. 

Answering a question about the positive impact of the implementation of Iran’s nuclear deal with the six world powers in January on accelerating the pace of installing platforms in South Pars, he elucidated that in Phases 17 and 18 some of the basic equipment including turbines and turbo compressors were to be supplied by European companies such as Siemens but the tools could not be received in the sanction-era. However, as of the first month of the current Iranian calendar year, Farvardin (March 20-April 19, 2016), all the ordered tools have been imported thanks to the execution of the nuclear accord, he said.

The platform 18B of Iran’s South Pars gas field was fixed on its jacket in the phase 18 of the giant gas field in the Persian Gulf on Tuesday. The operation of loading the platform from Bandar-Abbas yard was conducted by ISOICO on June 23.

HJ/MG