Gasoline storage capacity in Iran has reached 3 billion liters.
According to data from the National Iranian Oil Refining and Distribution Company, a subsidiary of the National Iranian Oil Company, fuel depots had a total capacity of storing 1.8 billion liters of gasoline in 2014, but this has risen by 70% to reach 3 billion liters, IRNA reported.
Ensuring sufficient and constant gasoline supply is among NIORDC’s priorities, because of which the number of fuel storage facilities has increased in proportion to the rise in the company’s output.
The company’s production capacity was barely 25 ml/d in 1978, but it has now approached 120 ml/d, of which 90 million liters are burnt daily and the rest is either exported or stored.
“The addition of gasoline storage capacity plays a key role in balancing production, supply and demand,” Alireza Sadeqabadi, chief executive officer of NIORDC said.
“Although gasoline demand hit a trough in March 2020 due to the Covid-19 pandemic, all refineries kept producing as the surplus could be stored in depots. Keeping storage facilities full is of great importance and fuel exports have been on hold in the last few weeks to fill the depots for winter,” he added.
Sadeqabadi noted that the less fuel is consumed domestically, the more foreign revenues can be derived from exports.
Oil Derivatives
NIORDC sold 8.5 million tons of oil derivatives in 2020, of which 7 million tons were gasoline.
Based on data issued by the firm, gasoline accounted for 82.5% of all petroleum products last year.
The company generated close to $6 billion by selling oil derivatives (excluding petrochemicals) in the one-year period.
NIORDC produced 110 million liters of gasoline per day in 2020, of which 74 million liters were burnt by motorists per day, giving this chance to the company to export the surplus (36 ml/d) to Afghanistan, Iraq, Pakistan, the UAE, Singapore, Uzbekistan and Armenia.
Nonetheless, last year’s uptrend in export has reversed as daily gasoline consumption in the first five months of the current fiscal year (March 21-Aug. 22) reached 95 million liters, which has left no room for exports.
According to Hamid Hosseini, a member of Iran-Iraq Chamber of Commerce’s board of directors, daily consumption in March-April was about 85 million liters, up 38 million liters compared with the same period of 2019 while daily demand in June-August surpassed 90 million liters, showing a rise of 30% year-on-year.
Following the launch of the Persian Gulf Star Refinery in Hormozgan Province in 2018, Iran became self-sufficient in gasoline production.
Gas Condensates
According to Sadeqabadi, gas condensates from South Pars Gas Field in the Persian Gulf account for 40% of total gasoline output in Iran.
"South Pars Gas Complex produces 650,000 barrels of gas condensates per day, a major part [500,000 barrels] of which is delivered to PGSR to be converted into gasoline," he added.
An estimated 120 million liters of gasoline are produced in Iran per day. “Forty million liters are from condensates produced from the SP Gas Field,” he said, noting that the rest is produced by refineries of Tehran, Bandar Abbas, Arak and Isfahan.
“Gas condensate is also sold to petrochemical plants in Asalouyeh and Mahshahr in the south as feedstock to produce value-added products and is offered on the international platform of Iran Energy Exchange,” he added.
Gas condensate is a low-density mixture of hydrocarbon liquids present as gaseous components in raw natural gas.
South Pars is the world's largest gas field shared by Iran and Qatar. It has been developed in 24 phases, of which 23 are operational.
PGSR was developed in four phases and each phase is designed to produce 12 million liters per day of high-octane gasoline and diesel as part of government policy to wean away from costly imports.
