| Asaluyeh عسلويه |
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Asaluyeh
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| Coordinates: | |
| Country | Iran |
| Province | Bushehr |
| County | Kangan |
| Bakhsh | Asaluyeh |
| Population (2006) | |
| • Total | 4,746 |
| Time zone | IRST (UTC+3:30) |
| • Summer (DST) | IRDT (UTC+4:30) |
Asaluyeh (Persian: عسلويه, also Romanized as ‘Asalūyeh and Asalu, and sometimes prefixed by bandar, meaning port)[1] is a city in and the capital of Asaluyeh District, in Kangan County, Bushehr Province, Iran. At the 2006 census, its population was 4,746, in 875 families.[2]
Located on the shore of the Persian Gulf some 270 km SE 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 was chosen as the site of the PSEEZ facilities due to it being the closest land point to the largest natural gas field in the world, the South Pars / North Dome Gas-Condensate field. In addition, an existing airport and direct access to international waters via a deep water port were already present.[3]
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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. Some 28 refineries and 25 petrochemical complexes are scheduled to be established in Asalouyeh, in southern Bushehr province. Of these, 10 refineries and 7 petrochemical complexes were already operational in 2009.[4]
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. 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.
As of August 2005, US$20 billion dollars of foreign money had been invested in PSEEZ since 1997. According to Iran's oil ministry, sales of products from PSEEZ could be as much as $11 billion dollars per year, over 30 years.
The Pars Special Economic Energy Zone (PSEEZ) is a special economic zone. PSEEZ was established in 1998 for the utilization of South Pars oil and gas resources. 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. The private sector has invested some $1.5 billion in the PSEEZ during the past 4 years (2009). Foreign entities have invested some $36 billion in the Pars Special Economic Energy Zone (PSEEZ) during the past 10 years (2009).[5]
Asaluyeh 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 Asaluyeh town is undergoing any development as a result. PSEEZ is run by the oil ministry, and has no responsibilities towards Asalouyeh town.
Asalouyeh has a main street and a couple of dozen small shops. In 2006 part of the town's seafront was given a promenade with some landscaping and decoration.
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.
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. 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.
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. 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 35 million tons per year and it is predicted that 26 million tons of petrochemical products in liquid from will be exported through this port.[6] 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.
Each of the phases of the South Pars project is estimated to have an average capital spend of around US$1.5bn, and most will be led by foreign oil firms working in partnership with local companies.[7] The government of President Ahmadinejad, who came to power in 2005, has favoured local firms over foreign companies in the energy and other sectors.[7] In 2010, Iran awarded $21 billion of contracts to local companies to develop six stages (phases 13, 14, 19, 22, 23 and 24) of the South Pars gas field.[8] Khatam al-Anbiya Construction Headquarters, the engineering arm of the Revolutionary Guard Corps, is part of the domestic group, as is Oil Industries Engineering and Construction and Iran Marine Industrial Co. The group also includes Iran Shipbuilding and Offshore Industries Complex Co., Industrial Development and Renovation Organization of Iran, and National Iranian Drilling Co.[8] Managing the projects by Iranian companies does not rule out the participation of foreign firms in South Pars projects.[9]
Any visitor to Asaluyeh will immediately notice the series of Gas and Petrochemical complexes running along the coast, one of 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. The area also hosts the world's largest aromatic production plant, Noori Petrochemical Complex, with an annual capacity of 4.2 million tons. Once completed, South Pars development revenue will exceed current oil exports incomes.[10]
Gas production at South Pars rose by nearly 30 per cent between March 2009 and March 2010. The field's reserves are estimated at 14 trillion cubic meters of gas and 18 billion barrels (2.9×109 m3) of gas condensates. Production at South Pars gas field will rise to 175 million cubic meters per day in 2012.[11]
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 1,800,000,000,000,000 cubic feet (51,000 km3) gas in place and 56 billion barrels (8.9×109 m3) 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 800 mmscf/d.
Gas production started from South Pars field by commissioning the development phase 2 in December 2002 to produce 1 bscf/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 500,000,000,000,000 cubic feet (14,000 km3) of gas in place and around 360,000,000,000,000 cubic feet (10,000 km3) of recoverable gas. It covers an area of 500 square miles (1,300 km2) and is located 3 km below the seabed at a water depth of 65 m. The Iranian side accounts for 10% of the world's and 60% of Iran's total gas reserves.[24]
The field is planned to be developed in around 30 phases, each of which will require an initial investment of around $1bn.
Due to the availability of Petrochemicals and their by-products, 10 square kilometres at PSEEZ has been allocated for related industries, such as:[25]
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. In 2010, a large power plant with 1,000 megawatts output was inaugurated in Asalouyeh, aiming to supply electricity to the refineries of South Pars gas field phases 9, 10, 15, 16, 17, and 18.[26]
Construction of two water desalination plants each with a capacity of 10,000 cubic per day started in March 2005. The project was finished 10 months ahead of its contractual 16 months estimate, making it a landmark in project execution in the region. The creation of a network for transferring water distribution network in different sites is underway.
In view of the Zone's policy on environmental protection and alleviation of industrial pollutions, first steps have been taken in the form 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, 10% of the total industrial site and 28% of the entire Zone will be transformed into green space.
Individual gas and petrochemical plants at Asoluyeh, when constructed, usually involve a partnership with a foreign company. The government of President Ahmadinejad, who came to power in 2005, has favoured local firms over foreign companies in the energy and other sectors.[7] Due to the embargo in place against Iran by the United States, it is mostly European and Asian companies becoming involved.
These include:
However, the US company Halliburton and American Allied International Corporation, have contracts for and business dealing with South Pars via subsidiaries.[29]
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.
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