The project to export liquefied petroleum gas from Bandar Abbas, Hormozgan Province, has been launched to help prevent the annual waste of 2,000 tons of LPG that was burned in the past.
Through the marine LPG export plan, Iran will earn up to $360 million of income annually, the Oil Ministry’s news agency Shana reported.
It took less than two months to turn a storage center in Bandar Abbas to a center for marine export of LPG.
Hormozgan has been one of the country's energy hubs and it is going to be a major export hub as well.
The production of LPG increased by 15% in the last seven months of the previous fiscal year (Aug. 23, 2021-March 20) compared with the same period of the year before. The rise in output also increased its export in the seven months.
LPG is a valuable product in the natural gas production chain which, in addition to being used as a fuel, is also used to feed many industries, including petrochemicals.
Despite the very high intrinsic value of this product, unfortunately in recent years, part of the LPG in gas refineries was injected into the national gas network and burnt along with natural gas.
However, one of the priorities of the current administration is to avoid wasting valuable compounds, including LPG.
By taking fundamental and infrastructural measures such as setting up Siraf Pars Port, completing the remaining units in South Pars refineries and pursuing active marketing for exporting LPG, a significant amount of LPG is saved. So, despite a 15% increase in production during the said period, the amount of LPG burned during this period declined by 10%.
As a result of these measures, the amount of LPG exported during the period under review reached 2,608,000 tons which, compared with the same period of a year ago, shows a rise of about 15%.
LPG is produced by Bandar Imam Petrochemical Company in the southwestern Khuzestan Province and Fajr Jam Gas Refinery in the southern Bushehr Province.
Export More Profitable
Currently, about 30,000 tons of LPG are produced in the country per day. Of this amount, about 6,000 tons are distributed daily in the domestic sector and the remaining could be used either as fuel in cars or exported.
There are two million households, mostly in the southern provinces of Sistan-Baluchestan and Kerman, which are not linked to the national gas grid and need LPG for cooking and heating.
The liquid gas can also be used for vehicles in the public transportation sector instead of diesel. Its advantage is that it is a cleaner fuel.
LPG accounts for 2% of the fuel used in the domestic transportation sector. There are at least 1.2 million cars equipped with LPG kits across the country.
Although adding LPG to the fuel basket will reduce gasoline consumption by 15 million liters per day, which can be exported, the Oil Ministry is against it.
Since each ton of LPG can be sold at $500 in international markets and there is high international demand for it, it is more profitable to export it. Iran's LPG exports have been around 500,000 tons per month recently.
