Shah Gas project in Abu Dhabi is expected to reach full capacity in the second quarter of 2015, earlier than anticipated.
The statement came from the chief executive of the company developing the field, Al Hosn Gas, who was speaking at the SOGAT conference in Abu Dhabi.
“Currently we are in the process of ramping up production to full capacity, which we expect to achieve during the second quarter this year, very soon,” said Saif Ahmed Al Ghafli, chief executive of Al Hosn Gas.
Production from the $10bn Shah Gas project started in January this year and is expected to be fully operational by June.
“The scale of the Shah gas development is larger than sour gas projects undertaken anywhere else in the world,” said Al Ghafli. “The outcome of the project is being watched very keenly by industry peers.”
“In the past, sour gas developments in the Middle East have been with single-digit levels of H2S, but you are now seeing a number of fields like Shah being developed which, along with very high levels of H2S and CO2, have other exotic contaminants,” said Ajay Badhwar, strategic market head of natural gas at Dow Oil & Gas, which is also involved in the Shah project.
“The advent of these highly sour fields requires deeper removal processes. The challenge is how to produce in an economic manner to bring gas to the marketplace while hitting very tight safety and environmental specs,” he added.
