Iran has rapidly increased its oil production from 2.8 million barrels per day (mb/d) in 2015 to 3.8 mb/d in September, but the country is also preparing to get into oil products markets seriously.
A source in Iran’s Oil Ministry told Trend on condition of anonymity that during the last fiscal year (ended on March 20), Iran exported 33.3 million liters per day (ml/d) of liquid fuels, of which about 82% was fuel oil. The figure indicates 44 percent growth year-to-year.
On the other hand, the latest official statistics indicate that despite increasing the gasoline imports by 25 percent to 12 million liters a day during the first quarter of the current fiscal year, Iran increased gas oil export 430 percent to 13 ml/d, while the fuel oil and LPG exports also experienced a significant growth.
Iran’s gas oil and fuel oil consumption at power plants decreased by 55.3 and 56.6 percent respectively during the first half of the current fiscal year, according to the official statistics of the Energy Ministry.
During this period, Iran converted about 12.7 million liters per day (ml/d) of liquid fuels to electricity.
| Production | Consumption | Export | Bunkering | |
| Gasoline | 67.1 | 70.8 | – | – |
| Gas oil | 89.4 | 82.2 | 5.1 | 0.8 |
| Fuel oil | 10.1 | 9 | 27.5 | 12.5 |
| Kerosene | 64.5 | 24.5 | 0.03 | – |
The figures are for last Iranian fiscal year, based on ml/d
Iran is also preparing to launch a gasoline production unit at its Bandar Abbas refinery and commence the first phase of Persian Gulf Star Refinery with 120,000 b/f of oil processing capacity by March 2017.
According to the official documents obtained by Trend, Iran is preparing to increase the gasoline and gas oil exports to 8 ml/d and 37 ml/d by March 2018, while the figures are expected to reach 42 ml/d and 67 ml/d respectively in 2021, when Persian Gulf Star Refinery’s all three phases with 360,000 b/d of processing capacity become full operational and three other refineries including Siraf Complex (400 kb/d), Bahman Geno (300 kb/d) and Anahita (150 kb/d) be commenced.
The source in the Oil Ministry also said that the share of non-standard gasoline and gas oil production in total output would also reach zero in 2021 from the current 48 and 72 percent.
The source added that currently fuel oil shares 24 percent of Iran’s total refinery capacity, but this volume would decrease to below 10% in the next five years.
The official documents also indicate that Iran has planned to export only 16 ml/d of fuel oil in 2021.
Iran is planning to increase the refinery capacity from the current 1.8 mb/d to 3.1 mb/d in 2021.
Iran has planned to invest $32 billion in new refinery projects and allocate $10 billion for upgrading the current nine refineries by 2025.
Dalga Khatinoglu is the head of Trend Agency’s Iran news service
