Baku, Azerbaijan, May 30
By Fatih Karimov - Trend:
The construction of the biggest gas condensate refinery in Iran will start in Siraf, located on the Gulf coast, by June 17, Alireza Sadegh-Abadi, the managing director of Siraf Refineries Infrastructure Company, said.
The Siraf Refinery will be comprised of eight condensate-refining units, with a projected 480,000 barrels a day of processing capacity, Iran's IRNA news agency quoted Sadegh-Abadi as saying on May 30.
The Siraf complex is in the coastal city of Assaluyeh near the South Pars offshore gas field.
The project is aimed to curb selling of crude oil, boosting the South Pars gas field production, and job creation, he noted.
Sadegh-Abadi added that the project is to be completed in three years.
"Around 60 percent of Siraf's condensate will be turned into naphtha, which is the basis for the production of plastic-based products," Sadegh-Abadi said. "Consumption of those products "is growing and directly linked to improvement in economic conditions in most countries," he said.
Siraf will have capacity to produce about 270,000 barrels a day of naphtha, 140,000 of gasoil, 30,000 of liquefied petroleum gas and 40,000 of kerosene, Sadegh-Abadi said.
Iran is boosting gas output from South Pars to meet a growing domestic need for fuel. Sales of condensate from South Pars supplement Iran's crude oil exports, which are constrained by international sanctions.
Condensate exports face no such constraints so long as they go to buyers permitted under U.S. sanctions to purchase Iranian crude. Sales of condensate doubled last year to about 200,000 barrels a day and contributed to total Iranian oil shipments in April of about 1.3 million barrels a day, according to the International Energy Agency.
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