It has been estimated that about 2600 TCF or 36% of the world’s natural gas reserves are sour and with international power demands, particularly in the Gulf where burgeoning economies are rising, development of these sour reserves are now receiving serious attention in Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Iran, Oman and the UAE. In the UAE, where it is expected that 45 billion cubic metres of gas will be needed by 2020, Abu Dhabi Gas Development Co. Ltd is on track to deliver first sales gas by Q3, 2014, from its Shah Field Development. They have recently agreed contracts for the project management services, the sulphur recovery and sulphur pipeline packages, the offsite and facilities package, the gas gathering package and the safety issues involved in production with a number of international contractors. When fully operational, not only will the project be the international benchmark but the Shah field will process 28 million cubic metres per day of sour gas resulting in 540 mn cfd of sales gas, 4,400 t/d of NGL, 35,000 b/d of condensates and an associated 9,200 t/d of sulphur. Similarly Qatar’s sulphur output is expected to double by 2015 to 2.5 million t/y and Saudi Aramco’s sulphur output is also expected to rise as it targets 13 billion cubic feet of non-associated gas production by 2020.
However, will the Gulf sulphur producers fare better than traditional suppliers given the all important logistics question of the supply and demand equation? |
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