The Oil Ministry will suspend exporting gas condensates and instead refine it domestically in petrochemical plants and refineries to produce value-added goods including gasoline and naphtha, the oil minister said.
Speaking on state-run radio, Bijan Namdar Zanganeh said the aim is to add value to the light hydrocarbons and exports will be put on hold during the current Iranian year that started in March, the Oil Ministry news portal reported Tuesday.
"Gas condensates will be processed in the Persian Gulf Star Refinery (in Bandar Abbas in southern Hormozgan Province) and Siraf refinery (in Asalouyeh, Bushehr Province) to produce gasoline and petrochemicals," Zanganeh said.
He did not say how much oil Iran is exporting. Iranian crude production is estimated to be around 2.2 million barrels per day.
Gas condensate is an ultra-light type of oil found in Persian Gulf gas fields.
The country has struggled to find buyers for its oil due to the new US sanctions announced in 2018. The Persian Gulf Star Refinery receives 420,000 barrels of gas condensates a day.
The Siraf project, yet to be completed, has six plants with total refining capacity of 360,000 bpd of gas condensates.
Work on Siraf complex started in 2014 and it is close to the giant South Pars Gas Field in the Persian Gulf. The refinery is being developed in Pars Kangan region of the Pars Special Energy Economic Zone, between phases 13 and 19 of South Pars Gas Field. Naphtha can be used in olefin plants to produce plastic, among other products.
South Pars Gas Field, which stretches offshore Iran into Qatar, where it is named the North Field, is Iran's foremost condensate producer.
The minister said South Pars and other nearby fields can produce up to 1 million bpd of gas condensates.
In early February, he had said that about 130,000 bpd of gas condensates feed the petrochemical plants and 80,000 bpd goes to domestic refineries, apart from the key Persian Gulf Star Refinery.
