Operations to complete two storage tanks and a jetty for loading and exporting sulfur from Siraf Pars Port on the Persian Gulf coast are underway, the National Iranian Oil Company’s director for integrated planning said.
“The projects are expected to become operational by the yearend, following which vessels with a capacity of 50,000 tons of sulfur can berth at the storage tank whose loading capacity is 1,000 tons per hour,” Karim Zobeidi was also quoted as saying by the Oil Ministry’s news agency.
The construction of the facilities is being handled by Iranian experts and engineers and the first sulfur storage tank with a capacity of 43,000 tons will come on stream in March 2023, he added.
Another sulfur storage tank will also be built at the port to double the storage capacity to 86,000 tons.
“The first jetty for loading and exporting LPG that went on stream in 2021 has a loading capacity of 5,000 cubic meters per hour of cold propane and butane,” he said.
“In order to increase the port's capacity for LPG loading and export, a second jetty, with a capacity for loading 5,000 cubic meters per hour, will become operational by the end of the current Iranian year [March 20, 2022].”
Close to 345,000 tons of liquefied petroleum gas have been exported from the Siraf Pars Port since February 2021
Siraf Pars Port is the second largest gas export terminal for the output of South Pars Gas Field, built with an investment of $450 million in an area of 360 hectares in Kangan region, Bushehr Province.
According to Payam Motamed, the port operator, close to 345,000 tons of liquefied petroleum gas have been exported from the Siraf Pars Port since February 2021.
Iran's liquefied petroleum gas shipments reached 450,000 tons last October compared with 556,000 tons exported in September, largely to Asia, trade sources said.
Exports up to Oct. 2021 amounted to 220,000 tons, the sources added, S&P Global Platts reported.
"The export volume last October was lower in comparison to September. The export volume was fluctuating between 450,000 tons per month and 530,000 tons per month," a trade source said.
Iran's LPG exports were hovering near two-year highs at around 500,000 tons/month between July-August last year and rose further in September. This, together with volumes in October and November, helped meet Chinese demand, as more propane dehydrogenation (PDH) plants resumed operations after undergoing maintenance.
Yantai Wanhua Chemical restarted the 750,000 tons/year PDH plant on Oct. 13, a company source said, after shutting it last September for 40 days.
Fuji Petrochemical, a subsidiary of Oriental Energy, resumed operations of its PDH plant in eastern Zhejiang Province around mid-September, following maintenance in early August of last year.
