In presence of President Rouhani,

Phases 17 and 18 of the South Pars gas field in the energy-rich Assalouyeh region came on stream today under the management of the Industrial Development and Renovation Organization of Iran. President Hassan Rouhani officially inaugurated the projects.

While visiting the South Pars gas field phases 17 and 18, experts and managers of the national project informed the president of the trend of establishing as well as activities for commissioning of the phases in the South Pars gas field, according to IDRO News.

Meanwhile, officials, managers, and engineers presented reports in a meeting to the president outlining the process and completion of phases 17, 18, 19, 20, and 21 of the South Pars gas field and its oil layer. Then, the president unveiled a memorial set up for the inauguration of phases 17 and 18 of the South Pars field.

On the sidelines of the inauguration of phases 17 and 18 and the unveiling of the memorial, Rouhani said in the auspicious days of the holy month of Rajab and the felicitous occasion of the Mab’ath of Prophet Mohammad (PBUH) and in honor of the Iranian nation and the Iranian industry, engineers, and laborers on the day of national progress and great inauguration for Iran, phases 17 and 18 come on stream.

Phases 17 and 18 are among the mega projects in the South Pars gas field which are of high importance for the national economy considering the high share of the domestic sector in the implementation of the project and its notable technical and engineering achievements as well as its high added value income.

According to officials, the two offshore phases are projected to produce 56.6 million cubic meters of gas per day.

The contract for developing South Pars phases 17 and 18 was concluded in 2006 to the tune of $2 billion. Under the auspicious of President Rouhani’s administration, completion of the project was prioritized within the framework of the South Pars gas field development plan.

One of the most notable specifications of the project was that Iranian companies held the lion’s share of implementing and building operations.

In this project, four 2300-ton platforms, two 32-inch offshore pipelines each to the length of 105 kilometers for transferring liquids from platforms to the refinery in Assalouyeh, one 4.5-inch pipeline for transferring chemicals aiming to prevent pipelines from corrosion and freezing, slug catchers, gas desalination and demoisturization units, producing ethane, separation of gas liquids, removing mercaptan from propane and butane, removing Co2 from ethane, boosting gas pressure to be transferred to the national gas network, gas condensate stabilization unit, sulfur  recovery, freezing liquid sulfur and shaping it, LPG storage tanks and liquefied gas transfer pumps, gas condensate storage tanks and gas condensate transfer pumps and auxiliary services except for electricity generation have also been established which are among both onshore and offshore facilities of the project.

The onshore refinery of the project has been established on a land measuring 155 hectares, comprising four gas sweetening units, gas condensate stabilization unit and storage tank, gas sweetening and demoisturization unit, gas refrigeration and ethane, propane, and butane separation unit, desulfurization, mercaptan removal and gas compression for transfer, sulfur recovery and grading unit, and monoethylene recovery unit. The steam, desalinated water and cooling requirement of the refinery will be provided by supportive units of the refinery and the needed electricity will be supplied by joint power plants of other South Pars projects.

Phases 17 and 18 are projected to produce 56.6 million cubic meters of refined gas per day to be injected to the national gas network, 77,000 barrels of gas condensates per day, one million tons of liquefied ethane per year and the same amount of ethane for exports, as well as 400 tons of sulfur per day as a side product of gas sweetening process. Moreover, the two phases will generate over $5 billion of income annually.

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