“Gas condensate is also sold to petrochemical plants in Asalouyeh and Mahshahr in the south as feedstock to produce value-added products in addition to offering it on the international ring of the Iran Energy Exchange,” IRNA reported Hossein Shamshiri as saying Wednesday.
Natural gas condensate is a low-density mixture of hydrocarbon liquids that are present as gaseous components in raw natural gas produced from gas fields.
As Iran increases gas output (850 million cubic meters per day, and expected to reach 1 billion cubic meters a day by March), gas condensate production is also rising, he added.
SPGC accounts for 67% and 92% of total natural gas and gas condensate output, respectively, the official said.
South Pars is the world's largest gas field shared between Iran and Qatar. It is developed in 24 phases of which 23 are operating.
Since last year the Oil Ministry every month offers 2 million barrels of light crude, between 1 and 2 million barrels of heavy crude oil plus two million barrels of natural gas condensates on IRENEX.
Buyers can take delivery either at Kharg Island terminal off the Persian Gulf or at petroleum storage tanks in Bandar Abbas for land delivery.
Offering crude oil and petroleum products on the energy market is part of the government efforts to involve the private sector and international companies in the oil industry, which forever has been under state control.
“SPGC is in charge of 12 refineries with 20,000 people on the payroll, and produces 700 million cubic meters of natural gas per day.” This volume indicates a growth of 145% (or 400,000 million cubic meters) compared to 2010 when output was 250 mcm/d.
The complex produces 10,000 tons of ethane, 2,000 tons of sulphur and 2,000 tons of LPG every day.
PGSR Expansion
In related news, IRNA quoted Alireza Sadeqabadi, chief executive officer of the National Iranian Oil Refining and Distribution Company as saying that construction work is over on the first stage of the fourth phase of PGSR.
“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.” The plant’s gasoline and diesel output has reached 38 and 10 million liters per day, respectively.
PGSR is being developed in four phases and each phase 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-4 and Euro-5 emission standards. He estimated daily gasoline consumption in the region of 75 ml/d.