A decision has been made on the contractor and the site for the construction of a new pipeline to transfer products from the Persian Gulf Star Refinery (in Persian: Setareye Khalij Fars), managing director of the southeastern branch of the Iranian Oil Pipeline and Telecommunication Company (IOPTC) said.
Petroleum products from the Persian Gulf Star Refinery, as well as products imported from southern terminals, will be transported to Bandar Abbas oil storage facility. After being combined there, they will be transferred to Rafsanjan oil transfer facility via a 26-inch pipeline, IRNA reported.
The pipeline is designed to transfer 50 million liters (equivalent to 360,000 barrels) of petroleum products per day, Alireza Kadivar said, noting that without the pipeline 700,000 oil tankers would be required to load, transfer, and unload petroleum products from Bandar Abbas to Rafsanjan in Kerman Province.
In total, 1,800 kilometers of pipeline is laid in the southeastern parts of the country, some of which are more than 50 years old. The pipelines are entirely repaired every 10 years. Construction of the new pipeline, extending from the southern city of Bandar Abbas to Rafsanjan, is projected to be carried out in 36 months, at a cost of $113 million plus 320 million euros.
The Persian Gulf Star Refinery is due to be commissioned in the first half of the next Iranian calendar year (begins March 22). The project was handed over to Bank Mellat last week.
Iran is to reach self-sufficiency in gasoline production and start export of petroleum products upon completion of the Persian Gulf Star Refinery in the port city of Bandar Abbas city in less than two years.
