Sina Energy Gostar Holding is planning to build a pipeline for the transfer of petroleum products with the help of a Russian company, managing director of the holding said.
“According to a cooperation document signed recently between the holding and the Russian state-run company Promsyrieimpor at the 16th Iran-Russia Economic Commission in Moscow, the Rafsanjan-Mashhad oil products pipeline, known as Tabesh, is to be constructed by the two companies,” the Oil Ministry’s news agency Shana quoted Mohammad Ziyar as saying.
“The project involves the construction of a 948-kilometer pipeline from Rafsanjan in the southeastern Kerman Province to Mashhad in Khorasan Razavi Province in the northeast, along with two pumping stations and three terminals. It will be carried out in cooperation with the two Iranian and Russian firms,” he added.
Noting that the project will take four years to complete, Ziyar said the Russians will provide financial resources for the project.
“The project’s design, equipment supply and implementation will be carried out by the holding and other Iranian companies. With the completion of the project, it will be possible to transfer oil products with a capacity of 150,000 barrels per day,” Ziyar said.
In the absence of this pipeline, about 800 to 1,000 tankers would be needed to carry this volume of products on a daily basis.
The pipeline will help meet domestic demand for petroleum products in the cities located along the way and could be used for making potential exports to Afghanistan. The products will be used for fueling power plants and industries in different regions.
The pipeline will source refined oil products from the Persian Gulf Star Refinery near the southern city of Bandar Abbas. There is already a products pipeline in place between Bandar Abbas and Rafsanjan, where the Tabesh pipeline will begin.
The cities on the route from Rafsanjan to Mashhad currently receive petroleum products by fuel tanker trucks.
With Mashhad less than 200 km from the Afghan border, there is scope of building an export pipeline from there to Afghanistan's western Herat Province.
Pipeline Transfers Rising
An estimated 66 billion liters of crude oil and petroleum byproducts were transported via pipelines in the first half of the current Iranian year (March 21-Sept. 22), indicating a 6% rise compared with the same period of last year.
Close to 14,000 km of oil pipelines are up and running in the country. With the implementation of new projects, the length of oil transportation pipelines will reach about 17,000 km in the next four years.
Operations to expand pipelines are underway for accelerating fuel supply across the country.
Four new pipelines are about to become operational, namely Naein-Kashan-Rey, Tabriz-Khoy-Urmia, Shazand-Rey and Ahvaz-Rey pipelines.
The construction of new pipelines to transfer petroleum products to southern oil terminals tops the NIORDC agenda, as this approach has priority over other means of supply such as using tanker trucks.
A new pipeline has also been designed to transport refined oil products, especially Euro-4 gasoline, from the Persian Gulf Star Refinery in Bandar Abbas to Tehran and other cities in the central and northern regions.
In the absence of pipelines to transport oil and petroleum byproducts, a large fleet of fuel trucks would be needed and this is while moving oil derivatives by road doubles the risk of accidents.
The transfer of each liter of oil and petroleum byproducts by pipeline costs 0.1 cent, while delivering the same volume by trucks will increase expenses tenfold.
Data released by the National Iranian Oil Refining and Distribution Company show trucking oil has a higher fatality rate compared to other means of transportation, such as railroads and pipelines.
Cooperation With Gazprom
Besides cooperation in financing the pipeline project, Russia has finalized contracts with Iran for the development of seven oil and gas fields in Iran.
Russia’s oil and gas giant Gazprom is to develop two gas fields and five oilfields shared with Arab neighbors with $40 billion of investment.
The long-term plan will help raise crude output from the current 2.5 million barrels a day to 5.7 million bpd in 2030. Moreover, natural gas production is supposed to increase by 500 million cubic meters to reach 1.5 billion cubic meters in eight years.
Of the total investment ($40 billion), $10 billion will be allocated for the expansion of the North Pars field, located 120 kilometers of Bushehr Province, and the development of Kish Gas Field, the second largest field in the Persian Gulf after South Pars located 30 km east of Lavan Island.
Gazprom will also invest $10 billion to develop oilfields that include onshore Karanj, Abteymour and Mansouri fields in Khuzestan Province, in addition to Azar and Changouleh fields near the Iraqi border in Ilam Province.
The Russian giant will invest $15 billion to increase pressure in gas wells in 24 phases of South Pars Gas Field.
Gazprom will invest an additional $5 billion on liquefied natural gas projects in Iran as well.
Using the expertise of Gazprom will enable Iran to access advanced technology for extracting gas from deep geological repositories to produce and export liquefied natural gas.
The LNG industry paves the way for entering new markets, access to which is not feasible through pipelines.
