Iran hits new record in building South Pars gas platform jacket

Iranian contractors have hit a new record for building the jacket of a gas production platform in phase 19 of the huge South Pars gas field in southern Iran.

A report published by the National Iranian Oil Company (NIOC) on Tuesday noted that NIOC’s contractors have hit a new record for designing, building, installing and launching the jacket of the South Pars phase 19 platform which is unprecedented in the 103-year history of Iran’s oil industry.

According to the report, despite international sanctions against Iran’s oil and gas industry, the jacket has been built and installed in the Persian Gulf waters in nine days, which is the shortest time recorded for installing offshore jackets.

The report added the construction of a refinery and offshore installations for the South Pars phase 19 shows a progress of 40 percent.

The main goal of the gas field phase 19 development is a daily production of 50 million cubic meters of natural gas, 77,000 barrels of gas condensate and 400 tons of sulfur.

The phase will also yield 1.1 million tons of liquid gas and one million tons of ethane gas per year which will be used as feedstock by petrochemical industries.

Offshore installations of phase 19 include 21 offshore wells, four platforms, two 32-inch gas transfer pipelines connecting the main platforms to the onshore refinery totaling over 260 kilometers, and two 4.5-inch pipelines for injecting monoethylene glycol.

A consortium comprising Iran Offshore Engineering and Construction (IOEC) and Petropars companies is currently implementing the 5-billion-dollar project for developing phase 19 of the South Pars gas field.

South Pars covers an area of 9,700 square kilometers, 3,700 square kilometers of which are within Iran’s territorial waters in the Persian Gulf. The remaining 6,000 square kilometers, i.e. North Dome, are in Qatar’s territorial waters.

The Iranian gas field contains 14 trillion cubic meters of natural gas (about eight percent of the world’s reserves) and more than 18 billion barrels of LNG.