Page 11 - DMEA Week 50

DMEA refining DMEA
Central Bank of Iran to refinance Siraf Refinery
middle east
ThE Central Bank of iran (CBi) is set to refi- nance the 2014-constructed Siraf Refinery (SRiC) by investing iRR200tn ($5.35bn) in the project, ShAnA reported on December 17.
The announcement was made by iranian Petroleum Minister Bijan namdar Zangeneh, who said the project was already underway and he had secured funding from the CBi for the project.
SRiC produces LPG, light naphtha, heavy naphtha, JET A-1, gas oil and residue, in the southern Bushehr province of the country.
The project, based on the Persian Gulf coast, connects with the vast South Pars gas field, shared with Qatar.
Zangeneh said the Siraf refinery project, which includes six refineries, each with a daily capacity of 60,000 barrels of gas condensate, was now underway, according to the agreements with the company.
When the project was first announced, it was said to form a key part of iran’s target of increas- ing its petrochemical capacity from 60mn tonnes per year to 180 million tpy by the end of 2022.
in a 2015 interview with S&P Platts, the pro- ject’s CEO, Alireza Sadeghabadi, said that Tehran is expecting to export more than half of the total output from Siraf to Asia, noting that interest from Asia was already strong, both in terms of
buyers and stakeholder investors.
“Asia is the centre of gravity for oil and all the
incremental demand will come from Asia. We are expecting to ship more than 50% of our prod- ucts to Asia,” he said,
subsidies and sanctions
Zangeneh added that investment in the CnG industry would alleviate issues with gasoline usage in the country.
he said that the economic situation and over- use of subsidised gasoline would not be reduced by pushing CnG as an alternative alone.
Elsewhere in his comments to the press, Zangeneh said that he thought the US sanctions imposed on iran and Venezuela were designed to boost sales of US shale oil.
“i do not doubt that one of the reasons for US sanctions on iran and Venezuela is to make room for its shale oil output at prices that justify investment in the sector.”
he added the US had managed to increase its output by 1.5mn barrels per day in 2018 and 2019 at oil prices above $60 a barrel and could manipulate the market by pushing iran and Ven- ezuela out. “Therefore this is not merely a politi- cal matter, but an economic one, too, which was presented as a political issue and they enforced it by bullying power.”™
Week 50 19•December•2019 w w w . N E W S B A S E . c o m P11