Page 7 - MEOG Week 40

MEOG Commentary MEOG
various oil storage facilities, export jetties, wave breakers and single buoy mooring systems would be built in Jask.”
During the summer, various Iranian officials several times indicated that Iran would be pre- pared to blockade the hormuz waterway should the US become too aggressive in its attempt to shut off world oil markets to Iranian crude exports.
The switch to the Gulf of Oman for Iranian oil shipments will not happen overnight. PEDEC, Petro Omid Asia Co., and nIOC have been given three years in all to roll out the oil terminal investment.
Storagetanksrealisedinthefirstphaseofthe project are to hold 10mn barrels of crude, while those built in the second phase will add extra capacity amounting to 20mn barrels.
he added that the MoP has issued permits for construction of two refineries capacities of 300,000 barrels per day and 150,000 bpd, respec- tively, with one to be carried out by the Execu- tion of Imam Khomeini’s Order (EIKO) and the other by the subsidiaries of Bakhtar Petrochem- ical Co. (BPC).
Meanwhile, Zanganeh noted that the Jask Terminal will be officially launched during the coming next Iranian calendar year, which starts on March 20, 2020, with a gas condensate cargo exportedfromtheSouthParsgasfield.
Refining ambitions
In July, the national Iranian Oil Refining and Distribution Co. (nIORDC) announced plans to increase the country’s refining capacity to
2.4mn bpd by March 20, 2020.
Making the announcement, CEO Alireza
Sadiqabadi said the country’s crude oil and gas condensate refining capacity is currently 2.15mn bpd. The downstream sector has already experi- enced significant growth in recent years with the flagship 360,000 bpd Persian Gulf Star Refinery (PGSR) the most notable addition and central to Iran’s achievement of fuel self-sufficiency. national refining capacity stood at 1.55mn bpd in 2017.
Sadiqabadi noted that “850,000 barrels of the oil and gas condensate which were banned from entering international markets were consumed domestically”.
In February, he said that Iran was producing at least 76mn litres per day of gasoline and 44mn lpd of diesel, making it the top producer of both products in the Middle East.
The overhaul of the sector is also resulting in improvements to refining practices. In recent months, improvements have been made by the 25,000-bpd Kermanshah refinery to reduce pollution.
Iran’s Financial Tribune reported in July that the facility had replaced furnace burners, constructed a vacuum distillation unit (VDU), and also carried out studies on the “construc- tion of quality units and production capacity development”.
Secretary-general of the Oil Refining Indus- try Cooperative Association (ORICA), nasser Ashouri was quoted as saying that the construc- tion and installation of the new production units would cost around $300mn.™
Week 40 08•October•2019 w w w . N E W S B A S E . c o m P7