Ilam Gas Refinery has significantly increased the output of byproducts in the current Iranian year’s first 11 months (March 21, 2021-Feb. 19), managing director of the refinery said.
“The company has taken effective steps to increase the volume of its byproducts for the second year in a row,” the Oil Ministry’s news agency Shana also quoted Rouhollah Nourian as saying.
“The refinery has raised its ethane production by 280% during the 11 months compared with last year’s corresponding period,” he added.
Nourian noted that it has also increased its liquefied natural gas by 145% and sulfur production by 5% in the said period.
“With 99.98% purity, the sulfur product of the refinery is one of the purest and highest quality of its kind in the country, which is mostly used in domestic industries. The liquefied natural gas is provided to Ilam Petrochemical Complex as its feedstock,” Nourian said.
“Annually, 130,000 tons of ethane, 230,000 tons of liquefied natural gas, 70,000 tons of sulfur and 1,350,000 barrels of gas condensate are produced in this industrial unit,” he said, adding that the refinery is designed for optimizing gas supply to Ilam Province.
According to the refinery’s managing director, ethane, gas condensate and liquefied gas are used as feedstock in Ilam Petrochemical Plant and have helped create more jobs in the western province.
Speaking about the second phase of the refinery, the construction of which will start in winter, he said the development project will help increase feedstock from 6.8 to 10.2 million cubic meters, which will help boost the production of various byproducts.
With the completion of the second phase, the refinery's products, including natural gas for urban and industrial use, sulfur, ethane, gas condensate and liquefied petroleum gas, which are used as feedstock in Ilam Petrochemical Complex, will increase by 1.5 times.
Nourian hoped that by 2025, the output of all products at the refinery will rise by 50%.
Last year (March 2020-21), the refinery supplied 1.5 billion cubic meters of refined gas to the national grid that was sold to households and industrial sectors in Ilam and the neighboring provinces.
The refinery also produced 60,000 tons of sulfur last year, half of which was used by local industries and 30,000 tons were exported.
