Through more than two years of negotiation, tendering and construction, the natural gas mercury removal device in AESW Block of NPIC project in Egypt was put into operation successfully on February 11, 2021, which solved the problem of this block left over by the past in excessive mercury content in natural gas successfully.
At the end of 2017, in order to meet the Egypt's requirements of re-exporting LNG, Egyptian General Petroleum Corporation (EGPC) has increased its standard for gas sales in the country, especially for the checks for mercury, which can cause catalyst poisoning easily during the processing and production of LNG. The AESW Block of NPIC project in Egypt, as the most productive onshore natural gas field in Egypt, has attracted much attention. The Project Company actively communicated with its partners, such as Shell and EGPC, and tried to agree to invest in the construction of mercury removal device, and saved USD 6 million by actively participating in bidding and other methods.
The evaluation of relevant technical proposal and commercial proposal for natural gas mercury removal device was completed at the beginning of 2019. Originally, it planned to complete and put into operation at the end of June 2020, but some devices cannot be cleared regularly and all construction personnel on site could not participate in the construction fully due to the sudden outbreak of COVID-19, so the operation of device had to be postponed. On the one hand, the Project Company promoted the production organization during the epidemic, and reminded the operators of the key epidemic prevention points based on China's advanced experience, so as to ensure the health and safety of the site construction personnel, without cluster cases during the construction of project.
The successful operation of the device not only effectively improved the quality of natural gas in AESW Block and stabilized the revenue from the production of natural gas of NPIC project in Egypt, but also played a positive demonstration role for the natural gas markets across the entire Egypt and highlighted the social responsibilities of Zhenhua Oil as the operator of international oil and gas.