Soaring gas-to-power turns Iran into major fuel exporter

Baku, Azerbaijan, Oct. 15

By Dalga Khatinoglu – Trend:

The latest statistics from Iran’s energy ministry indicates that the country increased gas deliveries to power plants by almost 8.2 percent to 37.817 billion cubic meter (bcm) in the first half of the current fiscal year (FY), which started on March 21.

Iran plans to increase gas-to-power to 65 bcm in the current FY. The volume was only 35 bcm in 2013.

Liquid fuel consumption has significantly declined in Iran due to the boost in the gas deliveries to power sector.

For instance, Iran used about 24 billion liters of gas oil and fuel oil in power sector in the fiscal year to March 2014, while this volume in the first half of current FY stands at 2.353 billion liters, almost five times less than the same period three years ago.

Fuel consumption and actual power generation capacity of Iran’s power plants

On the other hand, Iran’s LPG consumption in households declined from 2.4 million tons in 2010 to around 2 million tons in 2015. During this period, Iran’s LPG production also increased by 750,000 tons per year.

Iran started LPG export in early 2015 for the first time.

Currently, about 82 percent of Iran’s population uses natural gas in households.

Mohsen Qamsari, the director for international affairs at the National Iranian Oil Company (NIOC), told Mehr Oct. 14 that currently Iran exports 140,000 tons of LPG monthly.

Qamsari said that currently Iran exports about 600,000 tons of gas oil and 1.4 million tons of fuel oil monthly. These figures are equal to the export of about 22.6 million liters of gas oil and 52 million liters of fuel oil daily, both being historic records.

During the last year, Iran’s total export and bunkering of diesel and mazut stood at about 6 million liters and 40 million liters, respectively.

Oil products export outlook

Iran plans to increase the oil (and gas condensate) refining capacity from the current 1.8 million barrels per day (mb/d) to 3.1 mb/d by March 2021, according an official document seen by Trend.

The document prepared by Oil Ministry says that three major refineries will become operational by 2021.

The Persian Gulf Star Refinery will add 360,000 b/d, while Siraf Complex, Anahita and Bahman Geno refineries will add 480,000 b/d, 150,000 b/d and 300,000 b/d to the current refinery capacity, the document says.

During the last FY, Iran daily produced 67.1 million liters of gasoline, 89.39 million liters of gas oil, 10.13 million liters of kerosene, 64.49 million liters of fuel oil, as well as 10.66 million liters of liquid gas.

Iran imported 9.98 ml/d of gasoline during the last fiscal year. The figure increased to 12 ml/d in the first half of current fiscal year.

---

Dalga Khatinoglu is the head of Trend Agency's Iran news service, follow him on Twitter: @dalgakhatinoglu