Basic H2S Training in Kochi for Dammam-Based Gas Plant and Sulphur Crews

Sour gas from the offshore fields, sulphur at the plants

Karan, Hasbah and Arabiyah are non-associated gas fields in the Gulf, and the plants that receive their gas sit on the coast near Jubail. Karan is about 160 km north of Dhahran in 40 to 60 metres of water, with five wellhead platforms and 21 wells designed for 1.8 billion cubic feet a day. A 110 km subsea pipeline brings the gas to the Khursaniyah plant, about 50 km north-west of Jubail, and Offshore Technology records that three trains of 600 million cubic feet a day were added because existing capacity was not enough for Karan's sour gas. Gas began flowing in July 2011.

Wasit, which began operations in October 2015, is designed to process only non-associated gas, much of it from the offshore Hasbah and Arabiyah fields. Saudipedia lists its capacity as 2.5 billion standard cubic feet a day and its sulphur output as 4,800 tonnes of molten sulphur a day, with recovery of up to 99.3 per cent. MEED's profile of the Arabiyah and Hasbah programme describes four sulphur recovery units of 1,200 tonnes a day each. Aramco's own page for Fadhili says the plant reached its design capacity of 2.5 bscfd in 2021 and recovers about 99.9 per cent of sulphur with tail gas treatment, taking gas from Hasbah offshore and Khursaniyah onshore. Offshore Technology gives its sulphur output as 4,000 tonnes a day, and MEED reports an expansion adding about 1.5 bcf/d and 2,300 tonnes a day of sulphur, expected by November 2027.

Further inland, Jafurah is the unconventional gas development about 400 km east of Riyadh. Samsung Engineering's first gas treatment package covers 1.1 bcf/d and includes an acid gas removal unit, with sulphur among its products. Sulphur is a commercial product here too: Saudipedia records a 2014 arrangement for Aramco to supply molten sulphur to Ma'aden at 1.78 million tonnes a year.

We did not find a public Aramco standard that sets out an H2S training rule, so we do not claim one. Operators and contractors write their own requirements into the contract and site induction.

Do you need H2S awareness, or the offshore induction first

Start with where you will physically work. If your next site is a processing plant or sulphur unit, Basic H2S is the course that matches the hazard. If it is a Karan or Hasbah platform, the three-day T-BOSIET (or BOSIET with EBS if your client names the standard version) comes first, because without it you cannot make the transfer, and Basic H2S is the half-day addition that makes sense in the same trip. For permit holders and supervisors in turnaround work, Permit to Work is the other half of the picture. OPITO's standard has no prerequisite apart from a medical screening form before the practical exercises, so first-timers and renewers take the same course.