Iran Holds 13% of Mideast Petroleum Products Market

Iran has expanded its share in the Middle East oil byproduct market to 13.5% following the implementation of the nuclear agreement in January that led to the lifting of most financial and trade restrictions, managing director of National Iranian Oil Refining and Distribution Company said.

"Iran has maintained the export of petroleum products, including diesel and mazut, at around 400,000 barrels per day in the current fiscal year (ends in March 2017)," Abbas Kazemi was quoted as saying by Shana.

Referring to Iran's capacity to increase oil byproducts by an additional 100,000 barrels per day, Kazemi said, "NIORDC cannot currently increase exports due to the limited loading capacity of export terminals."

However, development of Mahshahr Port in the south will allow the country to gain a stronger foothold in the region's petroleum products' market, he noted.

Underscoring heavy tanker traffic in Mahshahr Port in the southern oil-rich province of Khuzestan, he said a growing number of international vessels set sail for the Persian Gulf port to pick oil byproducts, namely jet fuel, mazut and liquefied gas every day.

Iran and the world powers reached a landmark deal in July 2015 on placing time-bound curbs on Tehran's nuclear activities in exchange for lifting some sanctions that undermined the country's economy over the past several years.

The country is also expanding exports to China and Japan and some European countries, the official said without providing details."There are no banking problems in transferring revenues from the export of oil byproducts."

According to the National Iranian Oil Company, Iran currently exports 600,000 tons of diesel, 140,000 tons of liquefied gas (including LPG and LNG) as well as 2 million tons of mazut per month.

Oil officials have been quoted as saying that the rise in both production and export of crude oil and its byproducts would not have been possible if the international sanctions were still in place.