French Sofregaz Lands Iranian Contract

French engineering firm Sofregaz has won a €42mn ($50.5mn) contract to cut flaring at a gas processing plant in South Pars, Iran. The director of South Pars Oil and Gas Company (POGC) Mohammad Meshkinfam, said at the signing ceremony September 6 that it would take less than a year for the contract to pay for itself.

The processing plant can handle 20bn m³/yr, from phases 2 and 3 of the massive field. The Iranian side of South Pars (SP) was divided into 24 phases and 13 plants. The other side of the border is Qatar, where it is called North Field, and most of its gas is being liquefied for export.

Ten countries account for three quarters of the gas flared globally, according to the World Bank, and Iran is third on that list.

An oil ministry source told NGW anonymously that the plant where Sofregaz is to work now flares about 165mn m³/yr of gas (85% is methane) and that this would decrease to only 8mn m³/yr when the work is done in early 2020. He said Sofregaz will start the project in six months. “French Technip and Iran’s Saze Samin companies are involved in this project as well,” he added.

According to the statistics of World Bank, Iran’s flaring rose from 12.1bn m³ in 2015 to 16.4bn m³ in 2016. 

Dalga Khatinoglu