Page 40 - IRANRptAug21

Hormuz chokepoint
Iran pushes for oil export boost as ‘quickly as possible’
Iran’s petrochemical production up 7% in first Persian quarter says NPC
Iran’s gasoline production ‘has roughly doubled in three years’
easily become a chokepoint should there be any deliberate or accidental blockage—but Iran can now bypass the waterway by sending crude to the terminal in Jask, on the Gulf of Oman, launched on July 23.
Simmering tensions in the Strait of Hormuz—through which around one fifth of world oil passes—triggered surging oil prices early last year.
The strait is "the world's most important chokepoint for waterborne crude," Rystad Energy analyst Bjornar Tonhaugen told AFP, adding: "This [new terminal] may reduce the risk premium of crude prices. Iran has now a strategic ability to keep some of its oil exports to the world market running in... an extreme event."
Iran built a 1,000-kilometre (625-mile) pipeline to carry oil from Goreh in its southwestern Bushehr province to Jask. Its other main oil export terminal is in the Gulf port of Kharg, accessed via the Strait.
Iranian Oil Minister Bijan Namdar Zanganeh has said that Iran would return to the markets “as quickly as possible” when US sanctions were lifted, regardless of OPEC’s position on the country’s re-entry to the international oil markets, NIPNA reported on July 5.
The 18th meeting of oil and energy ministers of member and non-member producers of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) is ongoing this week in line with the Saudi Arabian representative to the group praising his Iranian counterparts efforts during his tenure on July 4.
After the the latest session Zanganeh said to the reporters that at the meeting, he had announced that whenever the sanctions were lifted, Iran would return to the market and reach at least the production prior to the sanctions in the shortest possible time
Zangeneh said that the country has “several measures” to ensure it can raise crude production in a “short period of time” if US sanctions are removed from Iran’s exports.
Zangeneh repeated calls that the country can boost its production to 6mn b/d as part of efforts to boost exports to international markets without specifying the country has these sitting in tankers or on land.
Iran’s petrochemical production volume expanded by 7% y/y in the first quarter of the Persian calendar year (March 21-June 21), according to the National Petrochemical Company (NPC).
The three-month petrochemical output stood at 16.3mn tonnes, NPC added. Petrochemical exports are the second biggest source of FX revenue for Iran after crude oil shipments. They make up around a third of the country’s non-oil exports.
Iranian Oil Minister Bijan Namdar Zanganeh lately said Iran was producing nearly 70mn tonnes of petrochemical products annually and was aiming for 100mn tonnes per year in the not-too-distant future.
With the world’s second largest gas reserves and fourth biggest oil reserves, Iran can produce plenty of cheap feedstock for petrochemical producers.
Iran’s gasoline production has roughly doubled from 59mn litres/day in the 2017/2018 Persian calendar year to between 107mn to 120mn litres/day currently, according to the managing director of the National Iranian Oil Refining and Distribution Company (NIORDC) Alireza Sadeq-Abadi, as cited by the Tehran Times on May 31.
Iran, he added, has transformed from being a country that around two years ago was still importing the strategic commodity, shipping in 17mn litres/day, to a country that exported more than $1.4bn worth of gasoline in the first seven months of the previous Iranian calendar year (March 20-October 21, 2020).
40 IRAN Country Report August 2021 www.intellinews.com