'Asalouyeh' (
Persian: عسلویه) also transcribed 'Assalouyeh' and 'Assaluyeh', and sometimes prefixed by 'bandar', meaning port) is a town in southern
Iran, in
Bushehr Province. Located on the shore of the
Persian Gulf some 270 km SW of the provincial capital of
Bushehr, it is best known as the site for the land based facilities of the huge
PSEEZ (Pars Special Energy Economic Zone) project. The town itself is of minor significance, although it is common practice to refer to PSEEZ (established 1998) and Asaluyeh town collectively as Asaluyeh. Asaluyeh is located at: ().
Location of Asalouyeh in
Iran
Asalouyeh was chosen as the site of the PSEEZ facilities due to it being the closest land point to possibly the largest
natural gas field in the world, the South Pars Gas Field. In addition, an existing airport and direct access to international waters via a deep water port were already present.
[Location assaluyeh.com]
PSEEZ
Pars Special Energy Economic Zone
The PSEEZ (Pars Special Energy Economic Zone) as it is known has been allocated 100 square kilometres of land at Asaluyeh for the various complexes and facilities. The site is a collection of different plants and
refineries (known as "phases") and is administered by the PSEEZ agency onsite.
A total of 27 phases are envisaged (12 gas, 15
petrochemical), plus a mix of light and heavy industry, and associated support facilities such as factories and warehouses. The scale of the project is huge. So far only 18 phases are have either been opened for tender, are under construction or completed.
As of August 2005, US$20 billion dollars of foreign money had been invested in PSEEZ since 1997.
PSEEZ is a workers town - tourism is non-existent. Currently there are no hotels in Asalouyeh, although plans exist to construct a hotel between the airport and the Industrial area. Once completed, the Sadaf International Hotel will consist of 400 rooms in three buildings, on 1 square kilometre of land.
According to Iran's oil ministry, sales of products from PSEEZ could be as much as $11 billion dollars per year, over 30 years.
A water treatment plant is now also operational, producing 5000 cubic metres of fresh water per day.
Asalouyeh Town
Asalouyeh town is surrounded by PSEEZ, but is still geographically separate and a few minutes drive from the nearest PSEEZ facility. Before the arrival of PSEEZ, the primary industry was fishing, albeit a very small one. Asalouyeh was a sleepy coastal hamlet, on a narrow strip of land between the
Persian Gulf and the
Zagros Mountains. Poverty existed in the small town, and it remains to be seen how the Asalouyeh town will be affected by the massive influx of workers and related construction at PSEEZ, as it grows around the town. To date it does not appear that Asalouyeh town is undergoing any development as a result. PSEEZ is run by the oil ministry, and has no responsiblities towards Asalouyeh town.
Asalouyeh has a main street, a couple of dozen small shops, and is still a sleepy hamlet in many ways.
Construction
The PSEEZ is one of the busiest ongoing construction sites in the world. At any one time up to 60,000 workers are onsite, mostly employed in construction of further gas and petrochemical refineries.
Airport
Construction of a new airport began in 2003. The new 'Persian Gulf International Airport' (
IATA code: 'YEH') opened to traffic in July 2006, replacing the original temporary airport. The volume of construction works for facilities such as runways and aircraft parking area, fence, and patrol roads and access routes to the airport's boulevard, construction of terminals with Jetways to handle 750,000 passengers per year. Control tower and technical buildings as well as supporting buildings such as fire station, meteorology section and so on have been started.
Airport characteristics are the runway with length of 4000 meters asphalt paved, width of 45 meters with two 7.5m shoulders along the runway. Aircraft parking area is 330 × 150 Sqm concrete paved. Airport area and peripheral buildings will be constructed on 18 hectares of land.
It should be noted that Iranian specialists are undertaking execution works for this airport and installation of the airport"s navigation and lighting systems will be performed by foreign companies.
Pars-Port Complex
★ Logistic Port:
Logistic port covers 150 hectares: The western breakwater is 2300 meters long and the eastern breakwater is 1000 meters long. The port basin is 100 hectares with capacity to accept ships of up to 80,000 tons deadweight. The nominal capacity of this port is 10 million tons per year including 1 million tons of granulated sulphur, 3 million of container products and 6 million tons of refinery machinery and parts.
This port will have at least 10 berths that can simultaneously accommodate 10 ships and especially for exporting of sulphur, containers loading / unloading as heavy cargo. Water drought along the berths is at least 11 meters and at most 15 meters and the jetty in this port is 2600 meters long.
At present, 5 berths are operational. It should be noted that all of the equipment needed by refineries and petrochemical industries were unloaded in this very port and installed on sites.
★ Petrochemical Port:
The petrochemical port with 15 berths and draught of 15 meters can accommodate ships of capacity 80,000 tons deadweight that especially carry gas and petrochemical products. The nominal capacity of this port is 30 million tons per year and it is predicted that 26 million tons of petrochemical products in liquid from will be exported through this port.
In accordance with the operations time schedule for the Zone"s petrochemical projects, execution operations on this port will be completed in three phases; phase 1 will be completed by 2005 and the project"s completion date will be year 2006.
Plants and Refineries
Any visitor to Asaluyeh will immediately notice the series of Gas and Petrochemical complexes running along the coast, one the largest collection of such facilities in the world. The various plants and complexes currently run for some 12 km, and more are being constructed.
A series of
gas flares which line the facility are immediately obvious, including one enormous flare in particular, with flames of almost 100 m in height. This flare is visible far out to sea.
★ Phase 1 was a US$770 million dollar development operated by
Petropars to produce gas for domestic consumption in Iran, and produces 1 billion cubic feet of gas per day and 40,000 barrels per day of gas
condensate.
★ Phases 2 and 3 was a $2
billion dollar development, built by a consortium of
Total,
Petronas and
Gazprom to produce gas for domestic consumption in Iran. It came online in March 2002. It is connected to two offshore unmanned platforms 105 km distant, by 2 x 32 inch pipes. It produces 2 billion cubic feet (57,000,000 m³) of gas per day, and 85,000 barrels (14,000 m³) per day of gas condensates.
★ Phases 4 and 5 being built by
Eni and Petropars, to produce gas for domestic consumption in Iran. Expected to be completed in 2006, it will be operated by Eni on behalf of Petropars.
★ Phases 6 to 8 being built by Petropars to produce lean gas for re-injection into the
Aghajari oilfield, and heavy gas and condensate for export. With a total cost of $2.65 billion, it involves construction of three offshore platforms in addition to the land based facilities.
Statoil is developing the offshore platforms while Petropars is developing the land based facilities. A 31 inch pipe will be laid from each platform to the coast.
★ Phases 9 and 10 will, when developed, produce
natural gas for export.
LG of
Korea were awarded the contract to develop these phases, cost is estimated to be $1.6 billion dollars.
★ Phases 11 and 12 will produce
LNG, the development contract currently being bidded on by
TotalFinaElf and
ENI.
★ Phase 13 development will be for LNG production and is being bidded for by
Shell and could be producing by 2008.
★ Phase 14 development will be for a
Gas to liquid plant, with Statoil and Shell reportedly interested. This could be completed by 2008.
★ Phases 15 and 16 development was awarded to a
consortium of companies headed by
Aker Kværner of
Norway. These phases will produce 2 billion cubic feet per day of natural gas for domestic consumption plus 1 million tons per year of
LPG for export. Cost of these two phases will be $2 billion dollars.
★ Phases 17 and 18 development was assigned to a consortium of Oil Industrial Engineering and Construction Company (OIEC), Iran Offshore Engineering and Construction (IOEC) and Petropars. These phases will produce 2 billion cubic feet (57,000,000 m³) per day of natural gas and 70,000 barrels per day of condensates.
Free Trade Zone
The PSEEZ is a
free trade zone. Goods can be brought in duty free, but cannot leave the PSEEZ and enter the rest of Iran. This is to encourage construction within and development of the PSEEZ.
A
visa is required to enter Iran for most nationalities, and is therefore needed to visit the PSEEZ. The only exception to the visa requirement is if you visit
Kish Island, which allows visitors to enter visa-free.
South Pars Gas Field
Main articles: South Pars / North Dome Gas-Condensate field
The field is located in the Persian Gulf.
The field is the biggest gas field in the world, shared between Iran and Qatar, which contains 1900 Tcf ( 53.8 Tcm ) gas in place and 56 Billion barrels of condensate in place in both parts.
The South Pars Field is the name of northern part, which is located in Iranian waters and the North Dome is the name of southern part, which is located in Qatari waters. South Pars Field was discovered in 1990 by NIOC.
Production started from the southern extension of the field, the North Dome in 1989, at daily gas production rate of 800mmscf/d.
Gas production started from South Pars field by commissioning the development phase 2 in December 2002 to produce 1bscf/d of wet gas.
The field consists of two independent gas-bearing formations, Kangan and Upper Dalan. Each formation is divided into two different reservoir layers, separated by impermeable barriers. Therefore, the field consists of four independent reservoir layers K1, K2, K3, and K4.
Iranian sections contains 500 Tcf ( 14 Tcm ) of gas in place and around 325 Tcf ( 9.2 Tcm ) of recoverable gas.
Downstream Industries
Due to the availability of Petrochemicals and their by-products, 10 square kilometres at PSEEZ has been allocated for related industries, such as:
★ Resins & Adhesives
★ Rubber & Plastics
★ Synthetic fibers & textiles
★ Oils
★ Fertilizers
★ Polymers
★ Paints & Protective Coatings
★ Pesticides
★ Detergents
Private companies are also constructing a business park and warehouses.
Internet access and telephony facilities are also available via a Tehran based Internet Service Provider, Pars Online. No other ISP's are present at PSEEZ.
Water supply project
• Construction of two water desalination plants each with a capacity of 10,000 cubic per day
• Construction of two concrete water tankers with capacity of 30,000 and 5,000 cubic meters
• Creation of a network for transferring water distribution network in different sites
• Procurement of water supply through Moharram project (Kowsar Dam) in the mid-term
The sport annex buildings and premises
Pars Special Economic Energy Zone sport annex has been designed on a 19 hectares site. This site will function as a sports park, which foreseen spaces in this park are:
• Multi-purpose indoor sports in 3500 m2 with capacity of 1200 spectators
• A standard lawn football ground for competitions to accommodate 5,000 spectators
• Outdoors sports grounds, volleyball, basketball, tennis, roller skating, and table tennis
• Indoor swimming pool in 2000 m2
• Indoors bowling hall in 1000 m2
• Bicycle routes throughout the site
• Buffet and coffee shop
Green space and environment
In view of the Zone"s policy on environmental protection and alleviation of industrial pollutions, first steps have been taken in from of 1000 hectares of urban green space and 3000 hectares allocated to forestation and expansion of the mangrove trees in the tidal area of the sea. In this way, in the outlook of the project, 10% of the total industrial site and 28% of the entire Zone will be transformed into green space which one of the measures towards this development is the establishment of plant nurseries to nurture trees that are compatible with the particular climatic conditions of the region.
Foreign Involvement
Individual gas and petrochemical plants at Asoluyeh, when constructed, usually involve a partnership with a foreign company.
Due to the embargo in place against Iran by the United States, it is mostly European and Asian companies becoming involved.
These include:
★ Dailem
★ Eni (formerly known as Agip)
★ Gazprom
★ Hyundai Engineering and Construction (with Linde Group) [Iran: Hyundai in Asalouyeh Gas Plant Contract]
★ Japan Gasoline Company (JGC)
★ LG
★ Petronas
★ Statoil
★ Technip
★ Total
★ Toyo Engineering Corporation (TEC)
However, the US company Halliburton and American Allied International Corporation, have contracts for and business dealing with South Pars via subsidiaries.[1]
Plans for LNG refining and export have been discussed - but it remains to be seen how this will be accomplished, as most LNG refining technology is US based and therefore subject to export control due to US sanctions.
See also
★ Ministry of Petroleum of Iran
★ National Iranian Gas Company
★ National Iranian Oil Company
★ National Iranian Petrochemical Company
★ Asalouyeh Airport
★ North dome field
★ South Pars / North Dome Gas-Condensate field
★ Economy of Iran
★ List of natural gas fields
References
External links
★ Pars Special Economic Energy Zone company
★ PSEEZ Official Site
★ Pars Business Park
★ Pars Industrial Warehouses
★ Pars Online ISP at Asalouyeh
★ US Department of the Treasury - Information and Guidelines on Trade Sanctions against Iran
★ Iran - Persian Gulf, Asalouyeh - Southern Pars Flickr
★ Pars Special Economic Energy Zone company
★ Iran Daily
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