Kish gas field, which is estimated to contain as much gas as held by five phases of the giant offshore South Pars Gas Field, is a top priority for the National Iranian Oil Company (NIOC). The rate of recovery from this sweet gas field is said to stand at 75%, which means too much for investors and petroleum engineers. Due to the facility of processing its gas to be fed into domestic gas network or to be exported, this field has been taken into consideration by Iranian oil officials. Therefore, Iran intends to develop this field as soon as possible in three phases and raise its output to 5 bcf/d.

Meantime, the location of this field in the coral and tourism Kish Island has largely affected its development. Exploration and drilling of wells at this giant gas field, which is recognized as the second largest gas field in the Persian Gulf, are under way with minimum damage inflected on the environment, while onshore field development is often harmful to the environment. To that effect, drilling of "Cluster A" wells located near the airport in this island and "Cluster B" wells is to be done directionally in order to occupy minimum space possible and cause minimum change to the shape of this tourism island. Meantime, the refining facilities in this gas field have been moved to Gorzeh Port instead of Kish Island in a bid to prevent air pollution. The gas produced for refining is moved to Gorzeh Port via pipeline to be sweetened and brought back to Kish Island.

The Kish gas field development project is endowed with features which make it different from other fields. For a variety of reasons, the development of Kish gas field has been delayed.

Nouroddin Shahnazizadeh, former CEO of Petroleum Engineering and Development Company (PEDEC), recently said Phase 1 development of Kish gas field would become operational in the near future; however, speculation is now rife that the Kish development project would be delayed. Kish gas field is planned to undergo development after technical obstacles have been removed and necessary equipment has been supplied.

Currently, all projects related to Phase 1, except for the processing unit, have been activated and the drilling of 13 onshore wells is under way.

In Phase 1 of the project, drilling of 12 production wells, workover of an existing exploration well, construction of subsea pipeline and sweetening facilities, gas condensate recovery, light gas pipeline, gas condensate export facilities and processing installations with a capacity of 28 mcm/d of sour gas are envisaged to recover 26 mcm/d of light gas and 13,000 b/d of gas condensate.

Onshore installations and the offshore pipeline are being completed and the agreement for the power plant has been signed with a domestic company. The required equipment for the power plant is being supplied.

Kish gas field is estimated to contain 38.3 tcf of gas plus 398 million barrels of condensate. An option is being studied to gather and transfer gas to Aftab Port where the refinery is located. Therefore, the collected gas will be piped to the Aftab Port refinery to be desulfurized and fed into national network for consumption.

Phase 1 development of Kish gas field is expected to produce 1 bcf/d of gas to be consumed domestically, and 11,300 b/d of condensate for exports.

Onshore wells will be 85% complete soon, while the subsea pipeline is 83% completed.

Kish gas field is estimated to be valued at $300 billion thanks to its huge gas reserves at the depth of 4,400 meters. Studies indicate that up to 5 bcf/d of gas would be recovered from Kish gas field. Based on maximum gas price in the region, Kish is estimated to be valued at $250 billion. When measured on global scale, Kish is valued at $500 billion.

According to the latest reports, development of Kish gas field has been under way at a suitable rate in the first phase. Drilling is mostly done. There are also plans under way to revise the design of Phase 1 in order to eliminate energy-intensive processes and replace them with energy-efficient ones. PEDEC is operating Kish gas field.

Domestic development of some processes is expected to be done throughout the development of Kish gas field. A gas sweetening project is being followed up on in collaboration with the Research Institute of Petroleum Industry (RIPI), in which determining the dew point is on the agenda. This project is said to be economical.

Courtesy of Iran Petroleum