Khazzan Will Start September, says Oman
A flare lit at the BP-operated Khazzan tight gas development is evidence that gas has been supplied to the plant and that the field will start operations early this September, said Oman's oil and gas ministry undersecretary Salim bin Nasser al-Oufi told Oman News Agency July 10.
The first train has a capacity of 500mn ft3/d, he said, while the capacity of the second train, which will be operated early 2018, is also 500mn ft3/d.
"The local market will have a share of the gas produced from Khazzan gas field. Some quantities will be also exported to be used as feedstock for Oman LNG and Qalhat LNG. All the quantities that will be used by power plants and their expansions or the additional projects have been already marketed. A portion of the production has been also allocated to the Special Economic Zone in Duqm through a gas pipeline that will be completed by the end of 2019," added al-Oufi.
BP had said in May only that the onshore Khazzan development would start supplying gas before the end of 2017. It concurred with the initial 1bn ft3/d by early 2018, but added that an additional 0.5bn ft3/d would be produced once Khazzan's second phase is up and running in early 2020. BP describes the project as one of its seven key projects in 2017. The Khazzan gas reserves lie at depths of up to 5km in narrow bands of extremely hard, dense rock.
Mark Smedley