The export of liquefied petroleum gas had a 120% growth during the first nine months of the current Iranian year (March-December 2022) compared with the same period of last year, a member of the Oil, Gas and Petrochemical Products Exporters Union said.
“In the nine-month period, 6.6 million tons of LPG were exported, which earned $4.9 billion for the country,” Hamid Hosseini was also quoted as saying by ISNA.
Iran's LPG shipments, largely to Asia, have reached 310,000 tons per month. The country’s monthly LPG output stands at 360,000 tons, of which close to 50,000 tons are distributed in the domestic sector and the rest is exported, showing a 50% rise compared to 2020.
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.
Recently, a project to export LPG 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 annually.
It took less than two months to turn a storage center in Bandar Abbas into a center for LPG export.
Hormozgan has been one of the country's energy hubs and it is going to be a major export hub as well.
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.
Currently in Iran, LPG is produced by Bandar Imam Petrochemical Company in the southwestern Khuzestan Province and Fajr Jam Gas Refinery in the southern Bushehr Province.
Bitumen, Methanol Export
Referring to the status of bitumen in the country, Hosseini said, “The domestic need for bitumen is 2 million tons annually. Now that about 7 million tons of bitumen are produced per year, we have an excess of 5 million tons. Exporting the surplus last year generated $1 billion for the country.”
Iran is among the top 10 bitumen-producing countries and has 19 countries as its export destinations.
A large volume of Iran's bitumen exports are undertaken from the southern province of Hormozgan, which accounts for more than 55% of Iran’s bitumen production.
Hosseini noted that the export of 6.8 million tons of methanol in the first nine of the months of the year has generated about $1.87 billion for the country.
Methanol is used to create high-quality chemicals, the most important of which are formaldehyde, acetic acid, MTBE, methyl methacrylate, methyl chloride and methylamines, which are processed to produce other derivatives.
Up until 2007, methanol was used only as a chemical, but the completion of methanol value chain gained momentum after methanol to olefin and methanol to propylene projects were accelerated, which have a bigger profit margin.
Data from the National Petrochemical Company show Iran produces about 13 million tons of methanol per year, accounting for 5% of the world's total methanol production with exports to Iraq, China, the UAE, India and South Korea.
The global methanol market is expected to grow at a significant rate in the coming years, driven mainly by the increasing use of methanol (in the form of fuel and antifreeze agent) in the auto industry. The methanol industry has experienced an explosive growth, primarily in China and the United States, owing to significant developments in shale gas.
Iran is striving to diversify its oil-dependent economy and make better use of its hydrocarbon reserves by producing petrochemicals and other products with higher value-added that can compete in international markets.
