Page 43 - IRANRptJul20

Iran refinery gas output registers annual growth
Iran oil revenues at $8bn
US sanctions, while Washington has said such a move would require a response.
“This is a strategic decision and an important step for Iran that will secure the continuation of our oil exports,” President Hassan Rouhani said in a televised speech in which he announced the planned upcoming use of the alternative port.
Providing more details, Rouhani said Iran aimed to export 1mn barrels per day (b/d) of oil by March from Bandar-e Jask, a port on the Gulf of Oman, just south of the Strait of Hormuz.
“This move will assure our oil buyers that Iran will continue exporting oil if the Strait is closed,” Rouhani added.
Iran lately said its oil revenues sank to $8.9bn in the year to March, compared to $119bn earned almost a decade earlier, in 2011.​ ​However, the figure may not take into account grey market sales that Tehran does not want to draw the attention to for fear of action from US sanctions officials.
The National Iranian Gas Co. (NIGC) has announced growth in the natural gas production at Iran’s refineries. ​A spokesman was quoted as saying that the average natural gas production was 674mn cubic metres per day.
The official further said that the country’s gas consumption was currently at 540 mcm per day, having hit a high of 600 mcm last year. The rate of usage is likely to increase during the summer peak as electricity consumption rises and gas consumption by the country’s power plants follows.
The steady increase in Iran’s gas production has provided domestic petrochemical players with the opportunity to diversify their feedstock in a bid to tackle the shortages created during the past years.
The insufficient production of vital gas feedstock has been one of the biggest challenges facing the development of the country’s petrochemical industry throughout the past two decades.
The challenge has mostly been felt by the gas-burning ethane producers struggling with feedstock shortage.
Ethane is among the highest value-added products used as feedstock in petrochemical plants. Each tonne of ethane, as the principal element in manufacturing petrochemicals, namely ethylene, can generate at least $1,000 in export revenue.
However, in the recent past, the lack of ethane supply required Iran to assign a monthly quota of the material to the petrochemical companies.
But the quotas are gradually being eliminated as more South Pars Gas Field phases in the Persian Gulf are becoming fully operational. With the development and operation of most phases of South Pars and the countdown for finalisation of the remaining phases of the giant gas reservoir on the one hand and the implementation of three crucial gas projects in Assaluyeh and Kangan on the other, Iran’s petchem sector will be provided with an abundance of different gas feedstock.
The domestic demand for ethane is now 5.5mn tonnes and the envisaged surplus will in due course be able to be exported.
Iran's Senior Vice President Eshaq Jahangiri said Iran’s oil revenues have plummeted to $8bn from $100bn in 2011, although there remains the possibility that he was not including grey market sales that Tehran does not want to draw attention to.
Iranian companies reportedly export non-oil products with a value of more than $40bn a year. Officials say around half of that money stays abroad. Separately, an Iranian cargo ship carrying food has docked in Venezuela’s capital, Caracas, Iranian state news agency IRNA reported on June 22.
43​ IRAN Country Report July 2020 www.intellinews.com