The fourth largest gas plant and the second to be built in Syria,
the Jibeissah facility in the north-east of the country was expanded in
late 1999 to 3.2 MCM/day of raw gas. The mechanical work for this was
done by Industrial Export of Romania.
The plant treats and processes associated gas from the Jibeissah
oilfield, and non-associated gas from the fields of al-Hol, al-Ghona,
Marqada, Tel Audeh, Qahtaniyah and Leylak. All these fields are operated
by the SPC.
The plant's first phase, with a capacity of 1.5 MCM/day, came
on stream at the beginning of 1988. The Jibeissah, al-Hol, al-Ghona and
Marqada fields started up in 1987-88. Together, they now can produce up
to 875 MCM/year.
The plant was modified and expanded to 1.7 MCM/day in a second
phase to handle non-associated gas from Tel Audeh, Qahtaniyah and
Leylak. The fields were put on stream in 1997.
The facility was expanded to 3 MCM/day in 1998 as the latter
fields' output rose to a combined rate of 1.3 MCM/day. A further
200,000 CM/day expansion was done in 1999 as production from most of the
fields increased.
The plant is now capable of producing as follows: 3 MCM/day of
clean gas (compared to about 2.8 MCM/day in 1998), of which 400,000
CM/day are consumed by the plant; 75 tons/day of condensates (compared
to 40 tons/day before the expansions in the 1990s); 90 tons/day of
sulphur (up from about 50 tons/day in 1988); and nearly 125 tons/day of
LPG (up from 70 tons/day in 1988).
The plant also has a gas turbine for electricity generation with an
installed capacity of 11 MW. Clean gas from the plant is transported
about 475 km to Homs by a 16-inch pipeline using compressors at the
boundary of the Jibeissah plant.
The gas is used in place of naphtha as a feedstock for producing
ammonia/urea at a nitrogenous fertiliser plant in Homs. Clean gas is
also being supplied to a 600 MW power station and a steel complex at
Zara, near Homs. Some of the gas is used as fuel by the Homs oil
refinery (see the oil refining sector in Downstream Trends No. 12).
The average rate of clean gas consumption in recent years has been
around 1.3 MCM/day for the nitrogen fertiliser plant and 200,000 CM/day
for the Homs refinery. Some of the cement factories in the country have
been converted to use natural gas from Jibeissah and other plants.
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