Baku, Azerbaijan, May 17
By Emil Ilgar – Trend:
Iran had to replace the German compressors, purchased for South Pars gas fields, with Chinese ones during sanctions era, managing director of Pars Oil and Gas Company (POGC), Mohammad Meshkinfam said.
Iran purchased 24 compressors from Germany’s Siemens before the sanctions to install at phases 12, 15-18 of South Pars, but Siemens refused to sell them after the sanctions were imposed in 2012, and the compressors were blocked in Germany until January 2016 when the sanctions were removed, IRNA reported.
"Iran had to purchase compressors from China instead of Germany," he added.
South Pars has been divided into 24 phases. All of the phases mentioned by Meshkinfam are active right now, but Iran needs to complete phases 11, 13, 14, 22-24 in coming years.
Siemens announced January 2017 that it received a major order for 12 compressor trains for two onshore natural gas processing plants in Iran.
"The order volume is in the high double-digit million euro range. Commercial operation is expected end of 2018," Siemens said.
Iran has activated 10 refineries of South Pars and three more refineries will become operational in coming years.
Currently, Iran produces 500 mcm/d of gas from South Pars and after full completion of the project, the volume will reach 720 mcm/d.