Tehran, Iran, June 8
By Kamyar Eghbalnejad - Trend:
Phases 13, 22 and 24 of South Pars gas field are in line waiting for Corrosion Resistant Alloys (CRAs) pipes expected to be imported to the country following the removal of anti-Tehran sanctions, a report said.
According to the report by Mehr news agency on June 8, construction works of Phase 13 of South Pars gas field are underway and engineers hope to start laying CRA pipes soon.
However, impending US sanctions have delayed works at the phase and the Iranian Pars Oil and Gas Company (POGC) is waiting for CRA pipes it had ordered in the past.
This is while Mohammad Meshkin-Fam, the managing director of POGC, recently said that Iran had imported enough CRA pipes and that the Phase 12 will become operational within six months.
The latest reports by the POGC showed that drilling operations at the phase had been completed early in March. Officials, nonetheless, are still waiting for the pipes to arrive.
Additionally, Phases 22 and 24 are also suffering from the same problem.
Back in May 2017, the National Iranian Oil Company (NIOC) signed an agreement with a Spanish-Iranian consortium over the production of corrosion resistant pipes used in the oil industry.
The agreement was reported by media to be worth $615 million – or €550 million. It was the first major agreement that the country signed after the re-election of President Hassan Rouhani.
The consortium, which included Spain's Tubacex S.A. and Iran's Foolad Isfahan Company, was supposed to produce pipes made of a corrosion resistant alloy (CRA) for a network of 600 kilometers, or about 370 miles, over three years.
The pipes would be produced using Japan's JFE Steel Corporation technology, and that the know-how will eventually be given to the Iranians.
Ali Kardor, the managing director of the National Iranian Oil Company (NIOC), was quoted as saying by the domestic media at the time that the agreement would make Iran the only country to achieve the technology to produce CRA pipes.
In a speech from the White House on May 8, Trump accused Iran of sponsoring terrorism and seeking nukes before announcing the US withdrawal from the nuclear agreement between Iran and the Group 5+1 (Russia, China, the US, Britain, France and Germany).
Trump also said he would reinstate US nuclear sanctions on Iran and impose "the highest level" of economic bans on the Islamic Republic.
The new US sanctions will take six months to kick in, but a number of European companies have already halted their businesses in Iran despite verbal pledges by their governments to protect them against any fallout.