$3.4 Billion Facility Hailed as Symbol of Nation’s Resistance
Iran Opens World’s Third Associated Gas Refinery
TEHRAN (Dispatches) – Iran on Thursday inaugurated the $3.4 billion Persian Gulf Bidboland gas refinery to process associated gas from crude oil production, rather than burn it through flaring.
The plant in the southwest province of Khuzestan has a daily capacity to process 56 million cu m/d of associated gas, including 13.5 million mt/year of sour gas and 2.25 million mt/year of sweet gas. Construction began in 2015.
"In full capacity, around 60% of our flaring gas will be taken care of by Bidboland and won’t be burned,” Minister of Petroleum Bijan Zanganeh said in a televised video ceremony from the plant. "Around 15% of the flaring gas will be taken by a project in Marun (Oil and Gas Co.) and in 2023, our flaring gas will near zero.” Production from the plant could generate $1.5 billion of revenue, of which $700 million come from exports, he said.
Iran had the world’s fourth largest gas flaring volume in 2019, according to a July 2020 report by the World Bank. Of the top 10 largest flarers, Iran was the only country to show a decline from 2018.
Iran shares the world’s biggest natural gas deposit with Qatar in the Persian Gulf, and should be using its nearly 32,000 billion cm to become a bigger player in the global market, President Hassan Rouhani said in a televised inauguration ceremony.
"We are behind in gas exports. We should be one of the top five gas exporters in the world,” Rouhani said. "The world is in need of Iran’s oil and gas. We can become the region’s hub in production and exports of electricity or gas.”
Bidboland will also produce 10.4 million mt/year of methane, which will be injected into the national gas grid, and 1.5 million mt/year of ethane that will be fed into several petrochemical plants in Mahshahr and Gachsaran. It will also export annually 1 million mt of propane and 500,000 mt of butane. Some 900,000 mt of acid gas produced each year will also be injected into oil wells of Aghajari fields in the Khuzestan province to boost crude production. It will also yield 600,000 mt/year of gas condensates.
The project was financed by the National Development Fund through a consortium of banks.
"This refinery is capable of collecting the whole associated gas in three provinces of Khuzestan, Kogilouyeh-Boyrahmad and Bushehr,” Mahmoud Aminnejed, managing director of Bidboland, said in the televised ceremony.
In the first phase, associated gas of the East Karun oil fields will be collected in bid to clean the environment from flare gas, Aminnejad said, and in the second one, those of the West Karun will be processed in Bidboland. The plant is currently the third such facility in the world, he added.
Aminnejad said that 500,000 mt of pentane plus, a natural gas liquid, will also be produced at the plant.
Zanganeh said that a "mini refinery” could be built to produce 15,000 b/d of gasoline using the pentane plus output.
Oil Exports Rise ‘Significantly’
Iran’s oil exports have climbed in recent months and its sales of petroleum
The plant in the southwest province of Khuzestan has a daily capacity to process 56 million cu m/d of associated gas, including 13.5 million mt/year of sour gas and 2.25 million mt/year of sweet gas. Construction began in 2015.
"In full capacity, around 60% of our flaring gas will be taken care of by Bidboland and won’t be burned,” Minister of Petroleum Bijan Zanganeh said in a televised video ceremony from the plant. "Around 15% of the flaring gas will be taken by a project in Marun (Oil and Gas Co.) and in 2023, our flaring gas will near zero.” Production from the plant could generate $1.5 billion of revenue, of which $700 million come from exports, he said.
Iran had the world’s fourth largest gas flaring volume in 2019, according to a July 2020 report by the World Bank. Of the top 10 largest flarers, Iran was the only country to show a decline from 2018.
Iran shares the world’s biggest natural gas deposit with Qatar in the Persian Gulf, and should be using its nearly 32,000 billion cm to become a bigger player in the global market, President Hassan Rouhani said in a televised inauguration ceremony.
"We are behind in gas exports. We should be one of the top five gas exporters in the world,” Rouhani said. "The world is in need of Iran’s oil and gas. We can become the region’s hub in production and exports of electricity or gas.”
Bidboland will also produce 10.4 million mt/year of methane, which will be injected into the national gas grid, and 1.5 million mt/year of ethane that will be fed into several petrochemical plants in Mahshahr and Gachsaran. It will also export annually 1 million mt of propane and 500,000 mt of butane. Some 900,000 mt of acid gas produced each year will also be injected into oil wells of Aghajari fields in the Khuzestan province to boost crude production. It will also yield 600,000 mt/year of gas condensates.
The project was financed by the National Development Fund through a consortium of banks.
"This refinery is capable of collecting the whole associated gas in three provinces of Khuzestan, Kogilouyeh-Boyrahmad and Bushehr,” Mahmoud Aminnejed, managing director of Bidboland, said in the televised ceremony.
In the first phase, associated gas of the East Karun oil fields will be collected in bid to clean the environment from flare gas, Aminnejad said, and in the second one, those of the West Karun will be processed in Bidboland. The plant is currently the third such facility in the world, he added.
Aminnejad said that 500,000 mt of pentane plus, a natural gas liquid, will also be produced at the plant.
Zanganeh said that a "mini refinery” could be built to produce 15,000 b/d of gasoline using the pentane plus output.
Oil Exports Rise ‘Significantly’
Iran’s oil exports have climbed in recent months and its sales of petroleum
products to foreign buyers reached record highs despite U.S. sanctions, Zanganeh said on Friday.
He did not give figures but said exports of crude had recently risen "significantly” despite tough sanctions that were imposed since 2018, when the administration of former U.S. President Donald Trump withdrew from a nuclear pact.
"We set the highest record of exports of refined products in the history of the oil industry during the embargo period,” the minister said, according to his ministry’s news agency Shana.
Iranian oil exports were as high as 2.8 million barrels per day (bpd) in 2018.
Iran has called on the new U.S. administration of President Joe Biden to return to the 2015 nuclear accord between Iran and world powers. Officials in Biden’s administration have said Washington would not take a quick decision on rejoining.
"If the sanctions are lifted, we will return to the market stronger than before, and faster than expected,” Zanganeh said. "I am not worried about the lost markets.”
Iran has increased exports of petroleum products in recent years, although products also fall under sanctions.
Unlike crude, where the ultimate buyer is a refinery, gasoil and other products can be sold to smaller industrial or residential buyers.
"The enemy and Trump wanted us to perish and die, our exports to reach zero,” Zanganeh said, adding "but we are alive and working with more hope to build the country.”