SHANA� The Iranian Offshore Oil Company (IOOC) will launch the gas processing facilities of Hengam joint gas field soon, IOOC managing director said.

According to the company, Hamid Bovard, the IOOC managing director, said the plant is being launched in line with the Economic Resilience policies of the Islamic Republic of Iran with the aim of preserving the environment.

He said startup operations of the facility began in December and all the plant's processing, infrastructure and utility units including the desalination, sweetening, pipelines, boilers, compressors, etc. units have come online in accordance with Pre-Startup Safety Review (PSSR) regulations.

Bovad, emphasizing that since late January, after injection of sour gas with about 18,000 ppm of sulfur to the processing plant, gas refining and production has become possible at the facility with the standards of the National Iranian Gas Company, said: "With the plant's startup, the gas flare of Hengam Field is practically snuffed out and an average of 70 million cubic feed per day of gas is being delivered to NIGC instead of being burned off.

The facility has been developed with 80 million cubic meters of gas processing capacity and will soon come online.