Expansion of Iran's Persian Gulf Star Refinery on Track

EghtesadOnline: Construction work is over on the first stage of the fourth phase of Persian Gulf Star Refinery in southern Hormozgan Province, chief executive officer of the National Iranian Oil Refining and Distribution Company said Tuesday.

News ID: ۷۴۷۶۸۹

26 June 2019

"The project has raised the refinery's condensate processing capacity by 40,000 barrels or 11%," Alireza Sadeqabadi was quoted as saying by IRNA.

An estimated 400,000 barrels per day of gas condensate is supplied to the complex from the giant South Pars Gas Field off the Persian Gulf, he said.

Phase four has increased PGSR's processing capacity by 120,000 bpd and NIORDC is now refining half a million barrels of condensates per day, According to Financial Tribune.

The plant’s gasoline and diesel output has reached 45 million liters per day and 13 ml/d respectively.

PGSR is being developed in four phases and each is designed to produce 12 million liters per day of high-octane gasoline and diesel as part of government policy to wean away from costly imports.

The first three phases are up and running.

Referring to gasoline production, the official said NIORDC is producing close to 110 ml/d of gasoline, of which 90m complies with Euro-5 emission standards.

He estimated daily gasoline consumption in the region of 95 ml/d.

Urging policymakers to be more sensitive to the soaring fuel consumption, he said replacing gasoline with CNG in cars, manufacturing fuel-efficient vehicles, improving and expanding public transport and increasing gasoline prices are among the measures that can help check the prohibitively high level of gasoline consumption.

Quality Diesel

Sadeqabadi put diesel output at 115 ml/d, of which 40% is compliant with Euro-4 and Euro-5 emission standards.

"In addition to Tehran, Tabriz, Shiraz and Mashhad, NIORDC is supplying quality diesel in Qom, Kerman and Ahvaz," he said.

Close to 263 inter-city stations provide buses and heavy-duty vehicles with diesel.

National crude and condensate refining capacity has increased by 40% since 2017. NIORDC processed 1.5 million barrels of crude per day two years ago. Today the volume is 2.1 million barrels.

In addition to PGSR, other refineries in Tehran, Arak, Bandar Abbas and Abadan have increased their collective capacity by 350,000 barrels per day.

Global Trend

Total refining capacity in the world is projected to grow by 15.1% between 2019 and 2022, with crude distillation units (CDU) capacity expected to hit 117 million bpd by 2022.

Asia will lead the pack with the highest planned and announced CDU capacity of 5.4 million bpd in 2022, followed by Africa and the Middle East with 3.2 million bpd and 2.7 million bpd, respectively.

In capital expenditure, Asia will again be the leader with expected capex for new refineries of $194.9 billion, followed by Africa and the Middle East, with $126.6 billion and $87.1 billion, respectively, GlobalData estimated.

Among individual countries, China is the leader, with ten new refineries expected to come on line by 2022, followed by Nigeria and Kuwait.

The top ten also includes Iraq, Iran, Turkey, Brunei, Indonesia, the Philippines, and Saudi Arabia.