Measure to Restrict Gas Condensate Sale in Int’l Markets

The National Iranian Oil Company is voiding export deals for gas condensates with foreign customers to reduce the sale of the hydrocarbon for use in more profitable industries such as petrochemical.

According to NIOC’s news portal, Iran has reduced the sales of gas condensates to international markets for the first time in the past 15 years to supply the much-needed feedstock to local refiners and petrochemical plants.

The Persian Gulf Star Refinery in the city of Bandar Abbas, Hormozgan Province, and Borzouyeh Petrochemical Company, the world’s largest aromatics production complex with a capacity of 4.5 million tons per year, are the biggest local consumers of gas condensates.

Each of the plants receives about 100,000 barrels per day of the fuel. With the completion of the refinery, this amount of feedstock, which are extracted from the South Pars Gas Fields in Bushehr Province, will reach 360,000 bpd.

PGSR is designed to produce 12 million liters per day of Euro-4 grade gasoline, 4.5 ml/d of Euro-4 diesel, 1 ml/d of kerosene and 300,000 liters per day of liquefied petroleum gas in the first development phase.

Based on the Sixth Five-Year Economic Development Plan (2017-22), the country’s total output of gas condensates must be used in local industries to decrease the sale of raw materials.

Oil Minister Bijan Namdar Zanganeh said in a televised interview last month that Iran has two plans to curb the sale of raw materials: expanding the petrochemical industry and increasing the country’s refining capacity.

Zanganeh said gas condensates will be used in domestic refineries to produce gasoline, diesel, naphtha and liquefied gas.

NIOC exported an average of 530,000 barrels of gas condensates daily between July 23 and August 22, mostly to South Korea.

Ali Kardor, NIOC’s managing director, recently said gas condensate output had reached 630,000 barrels per day.