Tehran, YJC. The country’s biggest refinery under construction was to be operational by the end of June, while the Oil Minister has said that it will not be complete until one year hence.
ISNA
reports that the first phase of the Setareh Khalij Fars refinery was to be
operational by the end of the previous month. The refinery was to produce 12
million liters gasoline per day.
Formerly
the Deputy Oil Minister Alireza Zeiqami had said that the project would have
been duly completed if financial sources were provided.
Zeiqami
had said that $2 billion was needed to accomplish the project.
The
Integration Commission has authorized the Oil Ministry to allocate $2.5 billion
to the private sector from the National Development Fund for the project to be
completed.
If the
refinery is operational it will be able to produce 55 million liters of the
country’s most needed products, gasoline compromising 35 million liters of it.
The
Oil Minister Rostam Qasemi says that with the refinery operational, Iran will
turn into a major regional gas exporter, and neighbor countries into a large
market exporting oil products.
ISNA
reports that the raw material needed for the Setareh Khalij Fars refinery is
360 thousand bbl gas condensates.
The
refinery’s daily production will comprise of 35 million bbl octane-95 gasoline,
2 million liters liquid gas, 13 million liters gas oil, 3 million liters light
jet fuel, and 130 million liters sulfur.
The
project is planned to be complete in three stages. The first stage was to be
completed by the end of June.
The
pipeline feeding the plant from South Pars gas reserves is 400 km long. It has
progressed 92 percent.
The
products are to be exported via Bandar Abbas and Port Rajaei.
Iran’s
National Oil Refining and Distribution Company, Oil Industry Pension Fund, and
the Malaysian Petrofield Co. are shareholders in the project.