A private company has invested to develop Abarkouh gas-to-liquids (GTL) plant in Yazd Province, the governor said.
"Saman Faraz Gheshm Co., one of the main suppliers of oil and gas equipment in Iran, will fully fund the long-delayed GTL venture that needs $800 million," Mohammad Kazemi-Nasab was quoted as saying by ISNA.
Work on the plant started in 2013 but could not move forward as planned due to unknown financial constraints.
Saman Faraz, a member of the Iranian Oil, Gas and Petrochemical Products’ Export Association, has finalized a deal with the Oil Ministry, the governor said, adding that environmental and feed-stock permits have been issued and operations will start soon.
Kazemi-Nasab said a Turkish company launched the project in 2013 with the help of domestic companies but was later put on hold. He did not provide details.
GTL is a process that converts natural gas into liquid fuels such as gasoline, jet fuel, and diesel. Using gas-to-liquids processes, refineries can convert gaseous waste products (flare gas) into valuable fuels.
"The complex will produce 10,000 barrels of gasoline and diesel per day and the new financier will focus on producing other petrochemicals.”
According to the US Energy Information Association, five GTL plants were in operation globally up until 2014, including two in Malaysia and one in Qatar operated by Shell.
Iran plans to develop its petrochemical industry by making better use of its hydrocarbon deposits. It sits on an estimated 18% of the total global gas reserves. Iran's petrochemical production capacity is around 65 million tons a year.
GTL can be created where gas byproduct from oil production is too distant from pipelines and thus flared, and from smaller gas fields where output is a limiting factor.
With 4 billion barrels of in-place oil reserves and 283 billion cubic meters of natural gas reserves, Qeshm Island, the biggest in the Persian Gulf, is a suitable site for refineries and GTL plants.
A pilot GTL plant is being built at the Research Institute of Petroleum Industry with a capacity of 3,000 bpd.
