Baku, Azerbaijan, Mar.2
By Fatih Karimov - Trend: Two gas projects in Iran has been stopped due to budget deficit, the Mehr News Agency quoted Iranian deputy oil minister Hamidreza Araqi as saying on March 2.
The construction of Bid Boland II refinery and another project for producing ethane at Parsian refinery have been halted, Araqi added.
Saderat Bank, as the source of finance of the two projects, has failed to meet obligations, he noted.
According to Fars news Agency, the first phase of the Bid Boland II refinery's construction plan started in 2005, but construction was halted.
Construction was later resumed in February 2011, and it was announced that the project will come on stream 36 months from that time.
The Bid Boland II gas refinery is also home to installations and pipelines intended to transfer 45 million cubic meters of sweet gas per day to the Port of Mahshahr in south of the country. It will boost the country's gas refining capacity by 57 million cubic meters per day. The refinery's output will also include 1.5 million tons of LPG and 400,000 tons of condensates, as well.
In August 2011, the National Iranian Gas Company awarded an ethane extraction contract worth €355 million to a domestic consortium to implement ethane extraction at the Parsian Refinery, Mehr News Agency reported.
The first EP contract to construct ethane extraction from the Parsian refinery in a 25-month period is awarded to domestic contractors.
The project aims to refine ethane, propane, and butane, starting at 83 million cubic meters per day. The extracted gas will be transferred to a general gas network.