Increase in Export of Petroleum Products

EghtesadOnline: Expanding the national gas network and replacing oil byproducts as feedstock with natural gas in refineries and power stations have led to an increase in export of petroleum products, the head of export and import department at the National Iranian Oil Products Distribution Company said on Saturday.

News ID: ۷۷۴۵۶۰

12 March 2017

"NIOPDC on average shipped 400,000 barrels a day, or 64 million liters per day, of oil byproducts to buyers in the Middle and the Far East in the current fiscal year" that ends on March 20, Alireza Rajabpour was quoted as saying by IRNA.

The company sold 220,000 bpd of petroleum products in the previous fiscal, data showed.

According to the official, gas extraction from the giant South Pars field in the Persian Gulf has exceeded 550 million cubic meters per day, which explains why around 90% of Iranian power plants now burn gas instead of other fuels for power generation, Financial Tribune reported.

Referring to China and India as the biggest customers of Iranian petroleum products, he said that due to low demand in Europe, the company is now concentrating on boosting exports to Asian customers.

The Nakhchivan Autonomous Republic, Armenia, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Iraqi Kurdistan and Sri Lanka also buy Iranian petroleum.

Iran is using the full capacity of its ports and export terminals in Mahshahr, Asalouyeh, Lavan and Bandar Abbas in the south to ship oil derivatives, namely naphtha, diesel, bitumen, sulfur, liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) and jet fuel.

"Iran has become an exporter of oil byproducts after years of import," Abbas Kazemi managing director of the National Iranian Oil Refining and Distribution Company said earlier this year, adding that export of LPG has risen to between 1,000 and 1,500 tons a day.