Azernews.Az

By Nigar Abbasova

The Islamic Republic of Iran, which reentered the energy market following the recent release of western sanctions imposed on it, plans to inaugurate Persian Gulf Star refinery soon.

A cornerstone of Iran’s economy is to ensure self-sufficiency in gasoline supplies, and the completion of the flagship Persian Gulf Star Refinery (PGSR) project remains central to achieving this goal.

Iran’s Deputy Oil minister Marzieh Shah-Daei told Trend that the construction of the refinery will allow the country to reach self-sufficiency on benzene production. She mentioned that the country will refine surplus of oil products to petrochemical materials. Moreover, a number of petrochemical plants will be constructed close to refineries in Tabriz, Arak and Isfahan to use part of the products of refinery as a raw material for petrochemical plants.

The Persian Gulf Star refinery is the most important refining project in Iran, meant to process the condensate from South Pars in Asaluyeh.

The managing director of the National Iranian Oil Refining and Distribution Company (NIORDC) Abbas Kazemi earlier said that the Star gas condensate refinery, with a capacity to produce 360,000 barrels per day is slated to become operational by March 2017.

Once the refinery is operational, some 35 million liters of gasoline and 14 million liters of gasoil will be added to daily production of oil products in Iran. Moreover, the refinery will yield some four million liters of liquefied gas, three million liters of jet fuel, and 130 tons of sulfur.

The country plans to increase the oil (and gas condensate) refining capacity from the current 1.8 million barrels per day to 3.1 mbd by March 2021. Moreover, the country is expected to commission 3 large refineries by 2021.

The project, which is Iran's first gas condensate refinery, has so far received some €1.6b to complete.

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Nigar Abbasova is AzerNews’ staff journalist, follow her on Twitter: @nigyar_abbasova

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