Page 19 - DMEA Week 21 2020

DMEA REFINING DMEA
Iran to halt condensate exports
IRAN
Condensate will be refined in the Persian Gulf Star and Siraf refineries.
IRAN has plans to stop exporting gas conden- sate and refine it locally instead to produce gaso- line and naphtha, according to an interview with the country’s oil minister Bijan Zanganeh.
Speaking on state radio on May 25, Zanganeh said the plan was to add value to the light hydro- carbons. The exports of condensates would be brought to a halt during the current Iranian year that ends in March 2021.
“All these gas condensates will be refined in the Persian Gulf Star and Siraf refineries ... to gasoline and petrochemical units feedstock,” Zanganeh added, without disclosing what con- densate volumes Iran has been exporting. Iran faces great difficulties in finding buyers for its oil due to a US sanctions policy launched in May last year aimed at pushing all Iranian crude exports off world markets.
The Persian Gulf Star refinery currently receives 420,000 barrels per day (bpd) of gas condensates, according to S&P Global Platts. The Siraf project, first announced in 2014 but yet to be built, encompasses six plants with a total refining capacity of 360,000 bpd of condensate. It will be located at the Persian Gulf complex, which is adjacent to petrochemical plants in the region. Naphtha can be used in olefin plants to produce plastic, among other products.
Iran’s section of the giant South Pars gas field in the Persian Gulf, which also stretches into Qatar’s waters, is Iran’s foremost source of con- densate. Zanganeh said South Pars and nearby fields can produce up to 1mn bpd of the fuel.
In early February, according to Platts, the minister said that about 130,000 bpd of the country’s gas condensates feed its petrochemical
plants and 80,000 bpd goes to domestic refiner- ies, apart from Persian Gulf Star.
Product hub
In other Iranian news, the CEO of the National Iranian Petroleum Products Distribution Com- pany (NIOPDC) has said plans are afoot to turn the country’s northwestern city of Urmia into a petroleum products export hub that would particularly target the Turkish market, ILNA reported on May 27.
The new storage facility, named Hajj Qassem Soleimani Storage after the Iranian Islamic Rev- olutionary Guard Corp (IRGC) commander assassinated in a US drone strike in January, was being positioned for exports that would also be aimed at other regional countries including Armenia, Keramat Viskarami was also cited as saying. Despite the international oil price col- lapse Iran still saw more profit in shipping petro- leum products to these markets rather than selling locally, he said.
Viskarami noted that the Urmia region has a useful strategic position commercially speaking, due to its proximity to Turkey, Armenia, Iraq and Azerbaijan.
The performance of NIOPDC was “satisfac- tory in the development of the Urmia facility” despite a slowing down in the project develop- ment over recent months, he said.
Ahmad Mojarad, director of the Urmia National Petroleum Products Distribution Com- pany, said: “Receiving, storing and distributing petroleum products to consumers is achieved in the minimum standard time and is meter-meas- ured.” ™
Week 21 28•May•2020 w w w . N E W S B A S E . c o m P19