was a gasoline importer,but with the startup of thePersian Gulf Star refinery we
are not importing gasolinefor the first time,” he said,adding that other factors like
gasoline rationing, expansionof public transportation fleet,diversification of fuel mix andCNG industry development hadcontributed to efforts madeaimed at zeroing Iran’s gasolineimports.Sadeq-Abadi said Iran’sgasoline consumption averaged87 ml/d in the current calendaryear, adding that the figure evenhit 103 ml/d recently. “Thesefigures indicate the acceptabledistance between production
and consumption, resulting insustainable gasoline productionand storage in the country.”500,000 b/d CondensateProcessingSadeq-Abadi said the
Persian Gulf Star refinerywould provide feedstock forpetrochemical plants.
“With the improvement oftechnology in the operatingphases of the Persian Gulf Starrefinery and the startup ofthe fourth phase wewould be able to recover more
from the jointly owned SouthPars gas field, and this refinerywould then be able to processmore than 500,000 b/d of gascondensate,” he said.“Increasing the productioncapacity of the Persian GulfStar refinery after the startupof the fourth phase and thedebottlenecking of phases oneto three of this refinery andimplementing fuel oil reductionprojects at the Isfahan, BandarAbbas and Tabriz refineries forthe generation of value-added,are among the top priorities
and short-term plans of therefining industry in the country.Fuel oil reduction projects arevery complicated, requiringfinancing,” said Sadeq-Abadi.He said Iran would need tostart up one refining phasevery year in order to catch up
with 8-9% annual growth ingasoline consumption, but thatis impossible.
“Given the high pace offuel consumption, in casefuel efficiency plans are
not envisaged the currentideal gap between gasolineproduction and consumption
will disappear in two years,” headded.Bandar Abbas RefineryProfitability at $350mnHashem Namvar, CEO of theBandar Abbas oil refinery, toldreporters that the oil treatmentfacility was generating $350million a year in profits.“With the startup of this[quality improvement] project,gasoil sulfur content has beenslashed from 10,000 ppm toless than 50 ppm,” he said.“With the implementation
of the products qualityimprovement and capacityincrease, in addition toupgrading
the quality ofgasoline to theEuro-5 grade,the gasolineproduction at
this refineryincreased 4 ml/din quantity,” headded.Namvar saidmaintaining productionlevels, upgrading the qualityof petroleum products forenvironmental considerations,self-sufficiency in gasolineproduction, recording morethan 45 million persons-hourof accident-free work andgaining valuable experience
were among the achievementsof the product quality upgradeproject at the Bandar Abbas oilrefinery.“Once this project has beenfully operational, the refinery
would be producing 15 ml/d ofEuro-4 gasoil, 12 ml/d of Euro-5, 1.4 ml/d of LPG, 1.5 ml/d offuel jet and 3 ml/d of kerosene,”he added.Namvar said 65% ofequipment used in the newplant at the refinery wassourced domestically.
He added that the plantincorporated gasoildehydrogenation unit, light
naphtha purification,isomerization, aminepurification of sour gas,sour water treatmentunit, sulfur recovery unit,sulfur granulation unit,seawater desalination unit,azote production unit, powergeneration unit and 15 storagetanks. He said the projectcreated 650 permanent jobopportunities.Namvar said other
achievements of the newplant at the Bandar Abbas oilrefinery included a 2.83mb
capacity of feedstock andproduct storage, storage of3,000 barrels of isopentane,
granulation and packaging of250 tonnes a day of sulfur andsupply of fresh water at the rateof 250,000 l/d.The Bandar Abbas oil refineryis one of ten refining companiesin Iran. It is the only facility inthe Middle East to process
heavy crude oil. Therefinery was launchedat an initial capacity of232,000 b/d, whichincreased to 320,000b/d in 2008. Therefinery saw itscapacity increase
to 350,000 b/din 2012 byinjection of gascondensate tothe distillation
andvisbreakingsections.February