Page 12 - MEOG Week 11 2023

MEOG PROJECTS & COMPANIES MEOG

Iran recommences work

on abandoned LNG project

IRAN IRAN has recommenced work on a major gas to provide the liquefaction equipment, could
liquefaction project that it was forced to aban- not fulfil the task due to the threat of sanctions.
don several years ago due to sanctions, Argus Linde was blocked from doing so in both the
reported on March 9. mid-2000s and in the early 2010s.
The report added that Tehran expects to Though US sanctions remain in effect, Iran
have the country’s first LNG facility in operation has claimed that work on Iran LNG has already
before the Raisi administration’s first term in resumed, with the administration attempting to
office ends in mid-2025. “accelerate” the work for a project completion
The project is a two-train 10.8mn tonne per within around two years.
year (tpy) investment in Assaluyeh in southern “We have been able to activate the large Iran
Bushehr province. Known as Iran LNG, it is one LNG project, which had been abandoned [by
of three LNG export projects that gas-rich Iran the previous government] for more than eight
was planning to launch in the early 2000s. But years under the rain and scorching heat,” Iran’s
all three were shelved because of international oil minister Javad Owji said this week.
sanctions related to Tehran’s nuclear develop- Owji was also quoted as saying that the gas
ment programme. sweetening units of the plant would be “put into
The two other projects were to build the operation by early next year”, referring to the
10mn tpy Pars LNG and 16.2mn tpy Persian Persian calendar year that starts on March 21.
LNG plants on Iran’s Persian Gulf coast. They How Iran will, to completion, finance the
were being led by TotalEnergies and Shell, project and secure all the required knowhow and
respectively, but the foreign investors pulled out technology is unknown.
of the country as the sanctions picture worsened. Iran also faces the difficulty that it has very
According to Argus, Pars and Persian LNG high per capita gas consumption despite being
had only reached the early stages of develop- the world’s third-largest gas producer. The
ment when they were abandoned, but Iran LNG domestic consumption level, marked by run-
had progressed to the point where preparations away growth, has greatly limited gas volumes
to install the liquefaction trains were largely available for export.
finished. Of the 256.7bn cubic metres of gas that Iran
However, the installation of the trains never produced in 2021, it used 241.1bcm domesti-
occurred because German industrial engi- cally. That left relatively little gas for export to Designs for Iran LNG at
neering company Linde, which was supposed pipeline customers Turkey and Iraq.™ Tombak Port

P12 www. NEWSBASE .com Week 11 15•March•2023