IDRO replaces OIEC on South Pars 17-18

24 February 2006

Mines & Industry Ministry subsidiary Industrial Development & Renovation Organisation (IDRO) has taken a 50 per cent stake in the consortium developing South Pars 17-18. Akbar Torkan, managing director of Pars Oil & Gas Company (POGC), which is the project client, told an Oil Ministry news network in early February that IDRO would replace Oil Industries Engineering Company (OIEC) in the project, for which an engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) tender is expected this year (MEED 20:1:06).

The other partners, both Oil Ministry affiliates, are Petropars with 29 per cent and Iran Offshore Engineering & Construction Company (IOEC) with 21 per cent. Petropars is nominally the consortium leader. Torkan did not say why OIEC had been replaced. The company is the main contractor on the South Pars phases 9-10 project, which is moving more slowly than expected.

The 52-month job will involve the development of facilities to produce 50 million cubic metres a day (cm/d) of treated gas for domestic use, 1 million tonnes a year (t/y) of liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) for export, 80,000 b/d of condensates, also for export, and 1 million t/y of ethane for use in local petrochemical projects. Sulphur recovery on the phases will run to 800 tonnes a day for export, twice the level of previous South Pars projects. Bids for South Pars phases 17-18 were submitted in late 2004 and at the same time proposals went in for South Pars phases 15-16. The winner of the 15-16 tender was a local group of Khatam-ul-Anbia (Ghorb) and Iran Marine Industries Company (Sadra). However, the group has still to sign the contract and has been asked to find a foreign partner.

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