Saif Al Ghafli, chief executive of Al Hosn Gas, the $10 billion joint venture between Abu Dhabi’s ADNOC and Occidental Petroleum, highlighted the regional sour gas revolution underway in the Middle East in his keynote address at the Sour Oil and Gas Advanced Technology Forum in Abu Dhabi this morning.
“Saudi Aramco’s first non-associated gas field at Karan, PDO’s impressive work with Shell on the Harweel project in Oman, and KOCs work on a Jurassic field again with Shell in Kuwait are all exciting and cutting edge sour gas field development and processing stories,” he said.
Al Hosn Gas’ principal project the Shah sout gas field development, which is set for completion in 2014, is one of the most ambitious sour gas projects ever commissioned. The project will involve construction of several gas gathering systems, new gas and liquid pipelines, and processing trains. The development is expected to produce significant amounts of condensate and NGL.
Together with Oxy, ADNOC is drilling 20 wells and building infrastructure for production of about 1 bscfd of raw gas yielding 1.6 million tonnes/year of NGL, 30,000-40,000 bpd of condensate, 3.4 million tonnes/year of sulfur, and 500-600 MMscfd of dry gas
The Al Hosn Gas CEO also highlighted Qatar’s enormous gas sweetening requirements and Iran’s progress with its South Pars 12th phase, which will be operational later this year, which he said was indicative of the Middle East being at the forefront of global sour gas production developments.
“Worldwide we can see many sour oil and gas fields coming into play and being developed,” Al-Ghafli said. “Sour reserves account for around 40% of remaining global reserves. Major projects are coming online in Kashagan, Turkmenistan, in China and in Australia. The technical challenges present difficult scenarios surrounding the design of facilities and HSE compliance, and all require extremely strong observation and control management.”
He added that though the challenges were great, they are being matched by projected energy demand growth.
“Here in the UAE gas demand is rising,” Al Ghafli remarked. “The Shah project will produce 200 billion cubic feet of processed gas per year when operational. The project will set new global benchmarks for gas processing and sulphur handling.”
Al Ghafli signed off with a rallying call to delegates. “Sour oil and gas projects work with difficult reservoir conditions and challenging processing and safety issues. New technologies and techniques to improve processing capabilities and safety are needed all the time. I look forward to a productive and successful SOGAT 2012 conference with you all.
