Amid clamors over the slow progress in the implementation of this phase of the South Pars development project and protests that the country might incur millions of dollars in losses for every day of delay in the inauguration of the development phase, only a few persons talked about the 70 percent share of Iranian companies engaged in carrying our the project. The involvement of over 60 Iranian companies in carrying out various sections of the first phase as a project entrusted for the first time to an Iranian contractor, reveals the key role the oil industry plays in developing the infrastructures of other industrial sectors. The approximate weight of the jacket of the production platform along with its Engineer Rahim Tabrizi, the manager of the phase one of the South Pars development project in the Petropars Company maintains that the implementation of the project would pave the way for domestic oil companies to demonstrate their capability and strength. He says, "Before the implementation of the phase one project, the Iranian contractors were not capable enough to participate in oil projects but with the removal of shortcomings facing the Iranian contractors and companies engaged in manufacture of equipment and offering services needed by he oil industry, no shortage of equipment or lack of off-shore facilities are now felt. With a big risk taken by Petropars Co. in ceding the implementation of various parts of the phase one project to domestic companies, though it was the first time for some of them to engage in activities on such a large scale, the presence of these firms in domestic and even international oil projects along with reputed international firms was not beyond expectation. According to Engineer Tabrizi, all big Iranian companies, particularly those functioning under the supervision of the Industrial Development and Renovation Organization (IDRO) did all within their power to implement the first phase of the development of South Pars gas field and enhanced their preparedness to undertake other projects in the best possible manner. Implementation of the first phase of the development of the South Pars gas field with an aim of attracting and transferring technological know-how, managing infrastructural projects in the field of engineering, and logistics and augmenting the knowledge of Iranian contractors and craftsmen, was entrusted to the Petropars Co. in 1999. Carrying out macro projects according to international standards, reducing executive expenses associated with the implementation of infrastructural projects in a tight competition with international oil majors, creating job opportunities though assignment of Iranian companies to manufacture needed equipment and components and making utmost use of domestic facilities for implementation of the project are among the major goals of this phase of the development project. With the full commissioning of the phase one project, crude gas will be extracted from 12 wells each with an average depth of 3,670 meters located 105 kilometers from the Assalouyeh port on the Persian Gulf, and after being refined in off-shore installations will be carried to Assalouyeh port through a underwater 32-inch pipeline to Assalouyeh refinery. In this refinery, all condensates, sulfur and other impurities will be separated from the crude gas and the sweet gas will be sent via a 56-inch pipeline for injection into the nationwide grid in Kangan. By refining the crude gas obtained from off-shore wells, 35 million cubic meters of refined gas, 40,000 barrels of gas condensates and 200 tons of sulfur will be produced per day at the Assalouyeh refinery. In implementing the off-shore part of the project, planning had been made and carried out within the framework of five projects for drilling 12 wells, construction and erection of oil platforms, a production platform, a residential platform and connecting bridges in the sea with an average depth of 60 and 70 meters and laying a total of 114 kilometers of underwater pipelines. The projects included: 1: The project on the jackets of platforms including the production, residential and flare platforms which was ceded to the Marine Structures Manufacturing and Engineering Company as the main contractor. The approximate weight of the jacket of production platform of the first phase project along with its substructures has been put at 3,700 tons. The six column jacket of the residential platform which is 75 meters high holds the accommodation module and tolerates side pressures at sea. Its weight along with its substructures amounts to 4,921 tons. The crude gas received from the oil rigs are primarily refined at the SPP1 production deck and its impurities are burned at the flare stack at sea. The SPF1 3-column jacket (with a height of 80.9 meters and weight of 1,058 tons) and the SPF2 3-column jacket (with a height of 80.1 meters and weight of 1,049 tons) support the flare stack located 250 meters from the production platform. This project has been carried out at Bandar Abbas and Khorramshahr workshops. 2: The decks and bridges project (Topsides) carried out by Iran Maritime Industries Company (Iran Sadra) and Samsung Co. of South Korea. With the implementation of the first phase project, a total of one billion cubic meters of gas is to be obtained from the two SPD1 and SPD2 oil rigs each covering six oil wells. Each of the three-storey platforms is 27.5 meters long, 16 meters wide. The weight of the SPD1 which is linked with the SPP1 production platform by a bridge is 1,000 tons. The SPD2 with a helipad and other facilities for berthing of ships weighs 1,474 tons and is located five kilometers from the SPD1 platform. The two platforms were assembled in June 2002 and carried and installed to the site in the August of the same year. The SPP1 production platform weighs 5,959 tons and all equipment needed for primary refining of crude gas and its transfer to the land has been mounted on it. The SPQ1 residential platform weighing 4,500 tons has been installed over a six column jacket. The four storey platform can accommodate 93 people. Around 23 domestic firms has been involved in manufacturing the equipment needed by the project in workshops in Bandar Abbas, Bushehr and a port in South Korea. 3: The Submarine pipeline project has been implemented by the Marine Installations Manufacturing and Engineering Company as the main contractor in partnership with two other Iranian firms. The project was carried out at Ahvaz Pipe Manufacturing Company and Pushesh Beton plan in Khorramshahr. 4: Drilling and well completion project 5: Project on transport and erection of marine structures The on-shore installations of the phase one project include units for separation of gas and gas condensates, dehumidification, gas condensate stabilization, gas sweetening, removal of mercaptan, regulation of gas dew point and condensation, desulferization, treatment of surface, industrial and waste waters, telecommunication systems, buildings and other logistical equipment such fire fighting equipment. They have been managed and implemented within the framework of five projects as follows: A: The on-shore refinery project (Process Plant) whose implementation was granted to Dailem company of South Korea and IDRO (Industrial Development and Renovation Organization) of Iran. The gas refinery of this phase has been set up in the Pars Special Energy Economic Zone in Assalouyeh port in a 138 hectare plot of land with an aim of final refining of sour gas. The unit for separation of gas and gas condensates from associate gas waters and its transfer to the processing system, two gas sweetening units (Train) each with a capacity of 500 million cubic feet of gas per day, two dehumidification units, two units for elimination of mercaptan, two units for regulation of hydrocarbon dew point, and two units for increasing pressure and export of gas to the nationwide pipeline network are among the main installations of the on-shore refinery. Two units (Train) for stabilization of gas condensates each with a capacity of 20,000 barrels per day, two units (Train) for production of liquefied sulfur each with a capacity of 100 tons per day, the sulfur solodification unit with a capacity of 200 tons per day, flare for burning waste materials, three pumping devices for measurement of gas condensates and a pipeline for their export from the floating rig are among installations of the refinery of the phase one of South Pars development project. About 23 Iranian companies have been involved manufacturing and installing such equipment. B: The project on utility facilities of the refinery which has been implemented by Mapna company as the main contractor consists of a series of logistical equipment which meets the needs of the gas refinery. In implementing this project, four power generation units each with a capacity of 30 watts, three industrial water desalination units each with a capacity of 85 cubic meters of water per hour, three steam producing units each with a capacity of 80 tons of steam per hour, two electric pumps for pumping sea waters each with a capacity of 2,300 cubic meters per hour and two emergency pumps each with a capacity of 1,000 cubic meters per hour have been manufactured and installed. The industrial water treatment units each with a capacity of 25 cubic meters per hour, distillation unit with a capacity of 45 cubic meters per hour, a drinking water unit with a capacity of 78 cubic meters per hour, three electric compressors for producing compressed air each with a capacity of 1,850 cubic meters per hour and an emergency compressor with a capacity of 900 normal cubic meters per hour are among the main logistical installations of the refinery. About 13 domestic firms have been involved in the implementation of this project. C: Telecommunication project whose implementation was entrusted to the Marine Structures Manufacturing and Engineering Company. These installations connect the off-shore residential and production platforms to Kangan gas refinery. Two Iranian firms were involved in carrying out the projects. D: Project on gas condensate storage tanks which was implemented by Paysaz company. The gas condensates obtained from the refinery processes is stored in four tanks each with a storage capacity of 260,000 barrels and then transferred to port facilities via a pipeline. These tanks can store an equivalent of 20 days of the refinery's nominal capacity. E: Operating base project whose implementation was ceded to Iranian company, Izh, as the main contractor. The operating base has been set up to be jointly used by phase 1, 2 and 3 of South Pars development project and meet the operational needs of the gas refinery as well as other on-shore and of-shore installations of the project. An Iranian company has been involved in the implementation of the project. It should be noted that the main on-shore units such as water, electricity and steam units as well as processing units such as desalination units and gas export network and its related installations had been set up and commissioned long before the inauguration of the refinery. Engineer Shekar Khab, the manager of the phase one project at the Pars Oil and Gas Co. in an interview with the Petro-Energy Information Network (PIN) in July last year had spoken about the commissioning of the sweetening unit of the on-shore refinery of the phase one project using sour gas from phases 2 and three and putting the refinery into operation on experimental basis. According to the official, the peripheral services and processing units of this phase had come on stream since March 2003 and installation of its platforms and submarine pipelines had been completed in the first half of the previous year. According to a system designed for transfer of gas and gas condensates from phase one of the South Pars development project, the highest amount of associate gas water and condensates concerning this phase should be separated at sea. In doing so, additional installations and equipment including six platforms were erected at sea for collection, processing and transfer of gas at sea. In fact, the first phase of the development of South Pars gas field is the only one to have a residential platform. According to Engineer Shekar Khab, with the manufacture of additional platforms for the first phase, all units of this phase can render necessary services to other platforms for implementation of other development phases of the gas field. The income from the implementation of the phase one of the South Pars development project, based on replacing other oil derivatives with gas, has been estimated at 3.5 million dollars per day and according to the latest reports exploitation of the project can earn the country 1.5 million dollars per day. Some experts has estimated that any delay in exploiting this phase of the development projects means inflicting 1.5 million dollars in loss on the country. Such comments prompted Oil Minister Bijan Namdar Zanganeh to declare at a press conference that the phase one had approached its end. He said "Failing to exploit the phase one project will means failing to make an income of between 1.5-2 million dollars per day and this does not mean that this amount is subtracted from the public assets. No money is lost, rather with the commissioning of the project the same amount of money will be added to the country's revenues per day." According to Engineer Zanganeh, the delay in exploiting the phase one of the South Pars development project had nothing to do with Petropars Co. as the contractor of the project. Rather, the new technology chosen for exploitation of the project has caused some problems. In fact, making use of new gas sweetening technology and fundamental changes in the project design were declared as the main factors behind the delay in the executive trend of the phase one of the development of the South Pars gas field. Moreover, according to Engineer Shekar Khab, predictions made in designing the systems of the first phase were totally different from what took place at the time of their tentative commissioning. For instance, the gas at the time of designing treatment units was much lighter than the one produced in practice. With the enforcement of fundamental changes in the project particularly in its mercaptan removing unit (MRU), Engineer Manuchehri, the managing director of the Petropars Co. finally revealed that the first unit of the phase one project had started operation at full capacity on June 9, 2004. At that time, the second unit was ready to start operation at 40 percent of its nominal capacity. But given the results from the production of the first unit, necessary changes were made in the second unit and for this reason its operation started on July 19, 2004. The news of the commissioning of the phase one of the development of South Pars gas field was announced at a time when it seems that insistence on partnership of Iranian companies in over 50 percent of the project has transferred all shortcomings and problems of Iranian contractors to the Petropars Co. although Engineer Tabrizi, the manager of the phase one project at the company believes that Iranian contractors are not responsible for delay in commissioning the project. According to him, the quality of the work of those companies in the phase one is not comparable to none of similar projects. One should not forget this fact that the possession of nearly half of the oil and gas reserves of the world and its geographical location between the two main energy consuming poles have provided it with special economic privileges in production and transit of energy. Utilizing such privileges requires the presence of big and powerful companies as public and specialized contractors and manufacturers of oil industry equipment so that besides playing a key role in implementing major oil and gas development projects they can meet the ever increasing needs of oil industry in the world. The development of various industrial sectors of the country through participation in the first phase of South Pars development project, transfer of relevant technological know-how and lowering the costs of other phases of the project are among the most important achievements made by the implementation of this phase of the project. Despite certain difficulties, it was the largest national project implemented in the country's oil industry. However, the acceleration of production by the neighboring country of Qatar from this joint gas reserve has added to the sensitivity of implementing other phases of development project as soon as possible. The existence of huge reserves of gas condensates in the South Pars gas field, sharing of its ownership and its location in the shallow parts of the Persian Gulf which make it possible to exploit its reserves without using sophisticated technologies justify domestic and foreign investments in its development project.