TEHRAN – The first train of the South Pars Phase 14 refinery is going to go operational by the end of the current Iranian calendar year (March 2021), the managing director of Pars Oil and Gas Company (POGC) said.

As reported by Shana, in a visit to the project’s site, Mohammad Meshkinfam said: “Phase 14 refinery is the last refinery of the South Pars, the development of which was delayed due to lack of financial resources, but the executive operations of this project have been started and are currently underway.”

The official put the physical progress of this refinery’s project at 85 percent, saying that due to the conditions and limitations caused by the coronavirus outbreak, the first train of this refinery may be put into operation later this year or early next year with a delay of one month.

According to Meshkinfam, out of 13 South Pars refineries, 12 refineries have gone operational so far and Phase 14 refinery is the last onshore processing facility belonging to the massive joint gas field that is being developed by POGC.

The official further said that the offshore section of the phase was fully operational with 56 million cubic meters per day (mcm/d) of production capacity. The last platform of the project came online on March 19 with a production capacity of 14.2 mcm/d.

The offshore section of the phase is comprised of four platforms including two satellite platforms and two main platforms each with 14.2 mcm/d of production capacity.

Phase 14 development is aimed at producing 56.6 million cubic meters per day of rich gas, 75,000 barrels/day of gas condensate and 400 tons/day of sulfur, and 1 million tons/year of liquefied petroleum gas and one million tons/year of ethane to be fed to petrochemical plants.

South Pars gas field, which Iran shares with Qatar in the Persian Gulf water, is divided into 24 standard phases of development in the first stage. Most of the phases are fully operational at the moment.

The huge offshore field covers an area of 9,700 square kilometers, 3,700 square kilometers of which are in Iran’s territorial waters in the Persian Gulf. The remaining 6,000 square kilometers, called North Dome, are situated in Qatar’s territorial waters.

The field is estimated to contain a significant amount of natural gas, accounting for about eight percent of the world’s reserves, and approximately 18 billion barrels of condensate.

EF/MA