Phase 21 Bracing Starts
Bracing operations have started on the platform of Phase 21 of South Pars gas field after successful load-out of this platform.
The bracing operation started in the presence of Ali-Akbar Shabanpour, CEO of Pars Oil and Gas Company, Abdol-Qasem Rahmani, CEO of Iranian Offshore Engineering and Construction Company (IOEC), contractors and other contributors to the project.
The platform for Phase 21 is the second to have been loaded out by IOEC, after Platform 19A.
The Phase 21 platform, weighing 2,700 tons with a capacity of 1 bcf of gas, is expected to be moved along with Platform 19A to the Persian Gulf aboard Abouzar barge.
The transfer of the two platforms together requires sophisticated and technical operations that will be handled by Iranian specialists.
Now as load-out operations finish in Phase 21, bracing operations start on this platform. In case of favorable weather conditions, both platforms are projected to have been installed early next month.
According to plans, the load-out of the Phase 21 platform will be the first in Phase 20&21 of the giant offshore gas field.
Among the most important features of this offshore project is that 6 million persons/hour have been spent in Khorramshahr Yard under searing sun and amid hazes.
These projects have directly created 1,200 jobs a day in the form of contractor and supervisor. All necessary operations have been handled by IOEC experts.
Phases 20 and 21 of South Pars are under development for the extraction of 50 mcm/d of gas for injection into Iran gas trunkline, production of 77,000 b/d of gas condensate for exports, production of 1 million tons a day of liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) for exports, production of 1 million tons a day of ethane for feeding petrochemical plants and 400 tons a day of sulfur for exports.
India's March Iran Oil Imports Top 500,000 b/d
India's Iran oil imports topped 500,000 barrels per day (bpd) in March, highest in at least five years, as private refiner Reliance Industries resumed purchases after a multi-year lay-off, preliminary tanker data obtained by Reuters shows.
Indian refiners together imported 506,100 bpd oil from Iran last month, a jump of about 135 percent from February, the data showed. In March of last year, the refiners halted imports from Iran to keep shipments within the parameters of the temporary nuclear deal then in force.
The higher imports by India signals Tehran's success in beginning to regain market share after the lifting of Western sanctions targeting its nuclear program.
Iran has said it will continue increasing its oil production and exports until it reaches the market position it held before the imposition of sanctions.
In the fiscal year ended on March 31, Indian refiners shipped in 14.4 percent more oil from Iran at about 251,100 bpd, the data showed. The increase was the largest annual growth since the 2007/08 fiscal year, according to Reuters data.
Essar Oil was the biggest importer of Iranian oil in March with about 207,400 bpd oil, followed by about 130,000 bpd by Mangalore Refinery and Petrochemicals Ltd and about 90,600 bpd by Reliance, its first shipments in about six years.
Reliance had halted Iranian oil imports in 2010 because it was worried that the threat of U.S. sanctions on companies doing business with the Islamic republic would complicate its efforts to boost market share for its fuels in the United States.
Last month Reliance imported Forozan grade and South Pars condensate from Iran, the data showed.
Indian Oil Corp, the country's biggest refiner and not a regular buyer of Iranian oil, shipped in 2 million barrels or about 67,000 bpd from Tehran last month.
Repsol Buys 1 mb Iran Oil
Repsol, Spain's largest oil company, signed a contract with Iran to buy one million barrels crude oil for delivery in July.
Iran's oil exports to Europe have risen up since clinching a landmark nuclear deal between Iran and the six world powers last year.
Iranian oil exports to Europe, which used to be 100,000 bpd, has neared 600,000 bpd today and is expected to rise to 700,000 bpd.
Repsol's contract with Iran is among the latest contracts between Iran and European companies. Russia’s energy giant Lukoil said it plans to resume refining Iranian oil on the Italian island of Sicily.
Lukoil Chief Executive, Vagit Alekperov said his group will now resume processing Iranian oil at the ISAB refinery in Sicily where Russian Urals was used during years of sanctions on Iran.
Iran's oil exports to Europe have risen since clinching a landmark nuclear deal between Iran and the six world powers last year.
Iranian crude exports to Europe, which used to be 100,000 b/d, have soared to 600,000 b/d and are expected to reach 700,000 b/d.
Repsol's contract with Iran is among the latest contracts between Iran and the European companies.
Earlier this year, National Iranian Oil Company's International Affairs Director Mohsen Qamsari said that 80 percent of Iran's deals to sell Europe crude oil has been fulfilled, adding talks are underway with major international oil companies for selling crude oil to them.
He said that Royal Dutch Shell has received a spot crude cargo from Iran and talks were going on with the company and other major energy companies for selling crude oil to them.
Iran has inked deals to sell crude to various European companies, including Italy's Saras and Iplom, Spain's Repsol and Greece's Hellenic, since the country struck a landmark deal with world powers over its nuclear program in 2015.
Pakistan to Receive Iran Gas Next Year
Iranian Ambassador to Pakistan Mehdi Honardost has announced that Iran can start supplying gas to Pakistan by the end of next year.
Addressing a ceremony held by the Pak-Iran Chamber of Commerce, the Iranian envoy said that Tehran and Islamabad have been in negotiations over the gas pipeline project. “After spending two billion dollars, we have completed our part of the project by constructing the pipeline along Pak-Iran border,” he said, adding that talks were also underway between the two countries to discuss the possibility of exporting Iranian electricity to Pakistan.
Islamabad is hopeful of reviving a stalled gas pipeline project connecting Iran to energy-starved Pakistan, following the signing of a historic nuclear deal between Tehran and world powers last year.
Launched in 2010, the project envisages the creation of 1,800 kilometer pipeline from Iran to Pakistan, which has for years been blighted by an energy crisis that has stunted its economic growth.
Iran completed its part of the project in 2013, but Pakistan put construction on hold citing US and European sanctions on Tehran linked to its nuclear program.
Pakistan’s key ally China is also financing the construction of a gas pipeline from the southern town of Nawabshah to the deep-water port of Gwadar, not far from Iran.
Once that is built, Pakistan will “only have to build another 80 kilometers” of pipeline to link up to Iran, and could eventually extend the project as far as its northern border with China, according to Pakistan petroleum minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi.