TEHRAN- Annual overhaul operations for the platforms of Iran’s South Pars gas field, which the country shares with Qatar in the Persian Gulf, have been completed, according to a deputy with South Pars Oil and Gas Company (POGC).

Mehdi Tayebi, the deputy director for repair operations at POGC, which is in charge of implementing development phases of the gas field, said overhaul operation of 36 platforms was completed in 136 days, POGC public relations department reported.

According to the official, during the period of overhaul operations more than 100,000 hours of work were carried out without any accident.

Referring to the decrease in the average number of days for the overhaul of each platform in the current year compared to the previous year, Tayebi said: “The average duration of annual repairs in the previous year was nine days per platform, the figure has decreased to 8.3 days this year.”

He underlined the importance of this reduction in production downtime, saying: "By reducing the average number of days of major repairs to 8.3 days, on average each platform will produce about 16.5 million cubic meters of gas and 11,000 barrels of gas condensate more than the previous year.”

The overhaul of South Pars gas platforms is carried out in the first half of the year due to the reduction in natural gas demand across the country.

These repairs are aimed at monitoring, troubleshooting, and preparing platforms for safe and stable gas production in the second half of the year.

The operations mostly include inspection of containers, calibration of safety valves, periodic repairs of control and F&G systems (which was not possible at the time of production), inspection and periodic repairs of UPS systems, replacement of process lines, repair of MOV, and ESDV valves and other valves that couldn’t be repaired or replaced during the production due to their location in the processing paths.

Pars Oil and Gas Company has taken preventive health measures to deal with the outbreak of coronavirus among its employees working on the platforms, and fortunately, there has been no case of this disease so far, according to the company’s office of public relations.

South Pars Gas field is currently divided into 24 standard phases on the Iranian side and 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.

The mentioned gas field covers an area of 9,700 square kilometers, 3,700 square kilometers of which, called South Pars, are in Iran’s territorial waters. The remaining 6,000 square kilometers, called North Dome, are situated in Qatar’s territorial waters.

EF/MA