Construction work on the fourth phase of Persian Gulf Star Refinery in the southern Hormozgan Province has started and is expected to be completed in less than two years, director of planning and project control of the refinery said Saturday.
Ahmad Shariatmadari described the refinery as the Middle East's largest gas condensate refinery, adding that when the new phase comes on stream it will have a processing capacity of 360,000 barrels of gas condensate a day.
Each of the four phases is designed to produce 12 million liters per day of high-octane gasoline, 4.5 ml/d of Euro-4 diesel, 1ml/d of kerosene and 300,000 liters of liquefied petroleum gas a day, IRNA reported.
“The refinery has been designed to help complete the value-added chain in the oil and gas industries,” Shariatmadari said.
Phase one of the refinery was inaugurated in April 2017 and the second in June of this year.
The first two phases are operating and the third has partially gone on stream, putting the refinery's daily output at 27.5 million liters. The third phase will become fully operational in February.
Located 25 kilometers away from Bandar Abbas, Star Refinery aims to help make Iran self-sufficient in gasoline production and enable exports of the fuel and other high-value products, Shariatmadari added.
Iran's gasoline output stands at 70 ml/d, but upon completion, the refinery will raise the volume to over 100 ml/d. It will also help increase the share of gasoline production that complies with Euro standards.
Each phase of the plant uses about 120,000 barrels per day of gas condensate supplied from the giant South Pars Gas Field off the Persian Gulf. With the fourth phase up and ready the refinery will consume almost 500,000 bpd of the fuel.
The project is estimated to be completed at a cost of $3.4 billion.
