The contract will call for engineering, procurement, supply, construction and commissioning (EPSCC) of onshore and offshore facilities. National Iranian Oil Company (NIOC) will finance the total project costs but has asked potential bidders to bring financing with them through export credit lines.

South Pars phases 15-16 will produce about 1,800 million cubic feet a day (cf/d) of treated gas for domestic use, 1 million tonnes a year (t/y) of liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) for export, 80,000 barrels a day (b/d) of condensate, also for export, and 1 million t/y of ethane for use as feedstock in local petrochemical projects. The contract also calls for sulphur recovery of 800 tonnes a day (t/d) for export. Past South Pars projects have only had a sulphur recovery rate of 400 t/d.

'There is greater sulphur recovery in this phase because we are going through all four South Pars layers,' Assadollah Salehiforooz, head of Pars Oil & Gas Company- the NIOC subsidiary responsible for developing the field, told MEED on 17 May. 'That has not been done before.'

The offshore facilities will include two wellhead platforms and utilities, to be tied to two appraisal and 24 development wells to be drilled by NIOC. Two 32-inch-diameter and two 4.5-inch-diameter subsea pipelines with a total length of about 135 kilometres are also to be laid. A standalone gas treatment plant will be built onshore in the Tumbak area.

The new tender was issued the same day as a contract was signed for the onshore construction of phases 6-8. Another contract for drilling services on South Pars phases 9-10 was signed the following day (see above; MEED 7:2:03).

Phases 2-3, which were completed by a consortium led by France's TotalFinaElfin January, are the only parts of the programme to have been commissioned so far. They produce 2,000 million cf/d of treated gas. Phase 1 is under construction by Petropars, another NIOC subsidiary, and is expected to be commissioned within months (MEED 24:1:03, Cover Story).

Phases 4-5, now being developed by Italy's Agipin partnership with Petropars, will produce the same amount of gas as phases 2-3, as well as 1 million t/y of LPG. Phases 6-8, for which Norway's Statoilis the offshore operator, will produce 2,600 million cf/d of treated gas and 120,000 b/d of condensate. Phases 9-10, being developed by a consortium led by South Korea's LG Engineering & Construction Corporation, will produce 2,000 million cf/d of gas, 80,000 b/d of condensates and 1 million t/y of LPG (MEED 14:3:03).