Saudi Aramcos first non-associated offshore gas field development Karan Gas Project successfully started operations at its gas processing facilities in Khursaniyah seven weeks ahead of schedule
The completion of the first gas-processing train ahead of time is another milestone for the Karan Gas Project as Saudi Arabia seeks to produce more gas to run power plants and save crude for export.
With a fully functional gas-treating train and a sulfur recovery train, the Second Phase of the project is almost complete, Aramco said in a statement.
"The Khursaniyah Gas Plant (KGP) can now process one billion standard cubic feet per day (scfd) of non-associated gas from the Karan offshore field," added Aramco.
During the First Phase, the offshore gas was processed at KGP's existing associated gas processing facilities but the new gas trains are now solely dedicated to processing the gas internally.
The company hopes to add two additional gas trains by the second quarter of 2012 that will bring the gas processing capabilities at KGP to 1.8 billion scfd.
At the Karan offshore field, one tie-in platform and three production platform complexes are ready, with a fifth platform scheduled to be operational in the third quarter of 2012. All the platforms are remotely operated and controlled from the gas plant.
Aramco had started producing about 400 million scfd of gas from Karan last July to help meet the local fuel demand.
