Page 6 - MEOG Week 50 2020

MEOG PIPELINES & TRANSPORT MEOG

Largest oil pipeline from

Iran’s Marun field catches fire

IRAN FIREFIGHTERS by late on December 13 had A contract awarded by National Iranian South
contained most of a blaze that broke out after Oil Co. (NISOC) earlier this year went to Sina
the Maroun pipeline carrying crude oil to Iran’s Energy Development Co. to carry out drilling
second-largest refinery, Isfahan, was ruptured and repair work on 18 wells as well as building
by a landslide, the head of the state company in pipelines for Phases 1 and 4 of the Marun field.
charge of oil pipelines told the Iranian oil minis- Sina Energy is owned by the Bonyad-e
try’s news agency SHANA. Mostazafan Foundation, a religious endowment
“Most of the fire ... has been contained and for war veterans and the poor. Both fall under the
operations teams are repairing the damaged sec- Execution of Imam Khomeini’s Order (EIKO).
tion of the pipeline,” Qasem Arab Yarmoham- Isfahan refinery has a capacity of about
madi was quoted as saying. 375,000 barrels per day (bpd).
Much of Iran’s oil and petrochemical industry Marun contains estimated recoverable oil
infrastructure is antiquated and in severe need of reserves of 22bn barrels, making it the world’s
revamping. sixth-biggest onshore oilfield. The field also has a
The pipeline was initially created under the rough extraction rate estimate of 520,000 bpd.™
Shah of Iran in the 1960s following an oilfield
discovery in 1963.
Khosro Kiani, an emergency official in
south-western Iran, where the blaze occurred,
was cited by semi-official news agency Tasnim
as saying that the oil had spilled down a hard-to-
access valley, which firefighting equipment could
not reach.
There have been several previous instances
of spillage from the pipeline that have affected
agriculture and fishing, state news agency IRNA
reported.
The pipeline and field are owned by the
state-owned National Iranian Oil Co. (NIOC).

Saudi Red Sea facilities attacked again

SAUDI ARABIA SAUDI Arabia’s Red Sea oil infrastructure was that it carries the hallmarks of tactics deployed
targeted once again this week with a tanker by Iran in the Gulf of Oman in 2019, where lim-
struck while discharging fuel at the port of Jed- pet mines were used to target vessels.
dah, with the ship’s owner saying it had been “hit While the Red Sea facilities are more than
from an external source”. 1,000 km from the bulk of upstream operations
When the incident happened, the Singa- which are located in the Eastern Province, the
pore-flagged BW Rhine immediately halted fuel success of such an attack on Jeddah could have
transfer and a fire was extinguished. Its owner significant human and operational implications,
Hafnia said the December 14 strike caused “an with the city being Saudi Arabia’s second most
explosion and subsequent fire on board”. populous.
It added: “It is possible that some oil has While Aramco closed its Jeddah refinery in
escaped from the vessel, but this has not been 2017, targeting facilities that far north illustrates
confirmed, and instrumentation currently indi- the capabilities of the Houthis, and must give
cates that oil levels on board are at the same level Aramco cause for concern about vital midstream
as before the incident.” and downstream facilities at Yanbu’, which is just
The vessel had been chartered by Aramco 300 km further up the coast.
Trading Co. and was loaded with gasoline at the Yanbu’ is a key export hub and the western
port of Yanbu’ on December 8 before heading end of the East-West Pipeline, which Aramco is
south to Jeddah. currently overhauling to increase longer-term
No group has yet claimed responsibility for throughput capabilities from 5mn barrels per
the attack, though Dryad Global has suggested day to 7mn bpd.™

P6 www. NEWSBASE .com Week 50 16•December•2020