Shana � The last topside of phases 17 and 18 of South Pars, weighing 2,300 tons, was on Sunday fixed in its location in platform 17B.

According to south Pars Oil and Gas Company (POGC) , operator of the project for development of phases 17 and 18 of South Pars Hassan Boveyri said the operations to fix the topside of the 17B in the reservoir were carefully implemented and without any incident.

"Since last month, the topside was ready to be fixed on the jacket but due to unstable climatic conditions, the importance of observing safety mandates and respecting the standardization indices, the lifting and installation phases of the project were handled successfully early Sunday morning upon receipt of reports that conditions in the Sea are stabile and also insurances on wind direction and sea waves.

Boveyri put physical progress of the platform 17B at 98 percent and said installation of the topside with the capacity for production of 500 million cubic feet a day, equal to 14.5 million cubic meters, was fulfilled with the HL5000 vessel of Iran Marine Industrial Company (SADRA).

Referring to the hook up operations and B17 platform fixing when the platform was operational, the official said with operation of the platform 17B by end of this year (to end on March 20), the phases 17 and 18 will be fully operational offshore and in the refinery of the onshore part to run with the designed capacity.

He said like other satellite platforms of the project (18B), the platform 17B has been constructed by Iranian experts at Iran Shipbuilding & Offshore Industries Complex Co (ISOICO) industrial yard in Bandar Abbas.

The Pars Oil and Gas Company (POGC) as the employer of the south Pars joint projects will on behalf of the Ministry of Petroleum and National Iranian Oil Company (NIOC), oversee the project implementation.

For the time being, regarding operation of the satellite platform 18B, total amount of products of the phases 17 and 18 has reached 46 million cubic meters and once the platform 17B is operational, the gas production of the phase's offshore part will hit its nominal production capacity.
The operator of the phases 17 and 18 said when the platform 18B was put into operation that since phased inauguration of the phases, about 12.5 billion cubic meters of gas, 9.5 million barrels of gas condensates, 260,000 tons of ethane and about 300,000 tons of propane and butane have been produced.