The construction of Mehr Persian Gulf Petro-Refinery in Hormozgan Province has registered 45% progress, the project manager said.
“The petro-refinery, which has been under construction by Iranian engineers for about three years, is expected to be launched by 2024,” Behzad Sojoudi was also quoted as saying by IRNA.
“It is estimated to cost $661 million, of which 82 million have been spent so far. Contracts for the purchase and supply of equipment have been concluded and advance payments have been made,” he added.
Sojoudi noted that the facility has been designed by local experts and engineers, and all the required equipment are supplied by domestic manufacturing companies.
“The initial feed of the refining plant is 120,000 barrels of gas condensate. In the first stage, 78,000 liters of naphtha will be produced daily and in the second stage, 14 million liters of Euro 5 gasoline and 5 million liters of Euro 5 diesel will be produced daily,” he said.
The refinery is located 18 km northwest of Bandar Abbas and geographically suitable as it has good access to Shahid Rajaee Port for export. It is located near the Persian Gulf Star Oil Refinery that is the largest refinery in Iran.
Petro-refineries produce both fuels and raw materials for petrochemical companies. Such plants have boosted the profitability and development of petro-refineries in developed countries.
Increasing Gasoline Output
The construction of Shahid Soleimani Petro-Refining Plant will start soon in the southern Hormozgan Province.
With a refining capacity of 300,000 barrels per day, the plant will help increase the production of gasoline and other value-added products. The new plant is expected to cost $9.5 billion.
Raising the gasoline output is important to prevent the fuel shortage in the near future because if domestic consumption continues to grow, Iran could become a gasoline importer again within a few years.
Iran imported gasoline until 2019 when Persian Gulf Star Refinery was launched and made the country self-sufficient in the production of the fuel.
However, as consumption has had an upward trend since then, officials expressed concerns and devised projects to increase the refining capacity.
The National Iranian Oil Products Distribution Company has predicted gasoline consumption to exceed 130 million liters per day by 2024 while the company’s current production level is 115 ml/d.
Refining Capacity
The National Iranian Oil Company has boosted its crude oil refining capacity to 3.8 million barrels per day, returning to levels not seen before the US withdrawal from the nuclear deal and reimposition of sanctions on Iran's crude sales in 2018.
The plan to raise oil production capacity was implemented at an estimated cost of $500 million.
The money was mainly spent on digging new wells and installing electric submersible pumps in marginal and abandoned wells whose output level had decreased substantially.
The current capacity cannot grow unless knowledge-based firms join hands with NIOC. Agreements worth $270 million have been concluded with the Academic Center for Education, Culture and Research, a subsidiary of the non-government Supreme Council of Cultural Revolution, based on which the research center is tasked with providing NIOC with high-tech equipment and materials.
