16newsnewsmonthly17monthly1716Gasoline Consumption to Fall 10ml/d“We Know How to Sell Our Oil without Sanctions”: ZangenehIranian Minister of Petroleum Bijan Zangeneh said Iran enjoyed the required means to sell its oil in the market if the sanctions were to be eased on the country’s oil exports. Speaking to reporters on the sidelines of the first innovative event of the Iranian Ministry of Petroleum, Zangeneh said, “I have no doubt that one of the reasons for the US to impose sanctions on Iran and Venezuela is to make room for its shale oil output at prices that justify investment in the sector.” He said the US had managed to increase its output by 1.5 mbd in 2018 and 2019 at oil prices above 60 dollars Isfahan Gasoline Production Plant OverhauledThe overhaul of the gasoline production plant at the Isfahan oil refinery has been finished sooner than expected. The operation had started last February.Ali-Reza Qazvinizadeh, director of preventive maintenance at the Isfahan oil refinery, said: “Since this plant was being overhauled for the first time it was likely to face challenges due to the conditions of installation, height and compact equipment. Therefore, any time estimation was difficult for the overhaul,” he said.Qazvinizadeh said operation was under way under subzero temperature, adding that due to the installation of some equipment at heights, more time was likely to be wasted. “The NHT unit whose overhaul was estimated at 22 days was over 9 days sooner, the CCR unit was ready 4.5 days earlier than the 24 days predicted, while the isomerization unit was ready 1.5 days sooner than the initially estimated 22 days,” he added.According to Qazvinizadeh, the most important operations related to overhaul included replacing gamma ray source, installing valve to avoid possible accidents on air coolers, modification of E-2 surfaces and replacing tube bundle.He added that the cooling tower and a flare of this company had been also overhauled. PRTC to Produce PP CatalystAli Pajoohan, CEO of Petrochemical Research and Technology Company (PRTC), said the polypropylene catalyst plant had been installed at the Arak branch of PRTC. He said: “Operations have started for launching this plant and this catalyst is forecast to be produced by the end of the current [calendar] year.”Noting that negotiations had been held with various bodies for the PP catalyst production, he said: “This plant has capacity to produce catalyst for an industrial-scale petrochemical plant.”Pajoohan referred to Kermanshah’s GTPP project as one of the most important plans under way by PRTC, saying: “This project incorporates a methanol-via-gas, a propylene-via-methanol and a polypropylene unit.”He said that the methanol catalyst plant for the Sabalan petrochemical plant was being implemented. He referred to the LL catalyst unit as the largest catalyst manufacturing unit in terms of capacity and investment. This unit is owned by the Bakhtiar petrochemical plant. Pajoohan said PRTC was receiving 85-90% of its required equipment from Iranian companiesGasoline Consumption to Fall 10ml/dAli-Reza Sadeq-Abadi, CEO of National Iranian Oil Refining and Distribution Company (NIORDC), said gasoline consumption would drop by 10 million liters a day after public transport fleet becomes gas-fired. “By converting nearly 1.5 million public transport vehicles to gas-burning, we forecast our gasoline consumption to drop by 10 ml/d,” he said. He added that the gasoline rationing scheme in the country has cut the gasoline consumption by 24 ml/d, expressing hope for another 10 ml/d reduction. Sadeq-Abadi said with gasoline valued at 50 cents per liter, gas engine vehicles would save the country about $1.8 billion. He said up to IRR 65,000 billion would be authorized to be invested in making vehicles gas-fired.“In light of using natural gas instead of gasoline and thereby exporting gasoline, the capital return would be quick with a high yield,” he added. Amin Valikzadeh, CEO of National Iranian Oil Products Distribution Company (NIOPDC), said the prominent measure for developing the CNG industry was taken in 2005. “Today, after years of close cooperation between the Ministry of Petroleum and the industry sector, we face no problem and shortages with regard to CNG supply to cars,” he said.Mideast Largest Gas Storage SiteNational Iranian Gas Company (NIGC) has announced that the Shourieh gas storage site would be operated under a build-operate-transfer (BOT) agreement. The company said in a statement that the first appraisal well for this storage site had been drilled in the Qezel Tappeh storage facility of Golestan. It added that seven natural gas storage projects were under study. In parallel with the development of the giant offshore South Pars gas field and concomitant increase in the natural gas production capacity of Iran, new natural gas storage facilities were put on the agenda.Starting up these storage facilities would increase the stability and resilience of Iran’s gas transmission network, particularly when gas consumption reaches its peak. NIGC is currently studying seven natural gas storage projects in various provinces. The second phase of the Sarajeh gas storage facility near Qom is put out to tender for a BOT agreement.Feasibility studies for natural gas storage in the Baba Qir and Bankoul storage sites would begin after drilling one appraisal well. A pre-feasibility study project is also under way for the Mokhtar gas storage facility.The natural gas storage feasibility project in Nasrabad (Kashan) is also in its final stagesasoline Consumption to Fall 10ml/d“We Know How to Sell Our Oil without Sanctions”: ZangenehIranian Minister of Petroleum Bijan Zangeneh said Iran enjoyed the required means to sell its oil in the market if the sanctions were to be eased on the country’s oil exports. Speaking to reporters on the sidelines of the first innovative event of the Iranian Ministry of Petroleum, Zangeneh said, “I have no doubt that one of the reasons for the US to impose sanctions on Iran and Venezuela is to make room for its shale oil output at prices that justify investment in the sector.” He said the US had managed to increase its output by 1.5 mbd in 2018 and 2019 at oil prices above 60 dollars Isfahan Gasoline Production Plant OverhauledThe overhaul of the gasoline production plant at the Isfahan oil refinery has been finished sooner than expected. The operation had started last February.Ali-Reza Qazvinizadeh, director of preventive maintenance at the Isfahan oil refinery, said: “Since this plant was being overhauled for the first time it was likely to face challenges due to the conditions of installation, height and compact equipment. Therefore, any time estimation was difficult for the overhaul,” he said.Qazvinizadeh said operation was under way under subzero temperature, adding that due to the installation of some equipment at heights, more time was likely to be wasted. “The NHT unit whose overhaul was estimated at 22 days was over 9 days sooner, the CCR unit was ready 4.5 days earlier than the 24 days predicted, while the isomerization unit was ready 1.5 days sooner than the initially estimated 22 days,” he added.According to Qazvinizadeh, the most important operations related to overhaul included replacing gamma ray source, installing valve to avoid possible accidents on air coolers, modification of E-2 surfaces and replacing tube bundle.He added that the cooling tower and a flare of this company had been also overhauled. PRTC to Produce PP CatalystAli Pajoohan, CEO of Petrochemical Research and Technology Company (PRTC), said the polypropylene catalyst plant had been installed at the Arak branch of PRTC. He said: “Operations have started for launching this plant and this catalyst is forecast to be produced by the end of the current [calendar] year.”Noting that negotiations had been held with various bodies for the PP catalyst production, he said: “This plant has capacity to produce catalyst for an industrial-scale petrochemical plant.”Pajoohan referred to Kermanshah’s GTPP project as one of the most important plans under way by PRTC, saying: “This project incorporates a methanol-via-gas, a propylene-via-methanol and a polypropylene unit.”He said that the methanol catalyst plant for the Sabalan petrochemical plant was being implemented. He referred to the LL catalyst unit as the largest catalyst manufacturing unit in terms of capacity and investment. This unit is owned by the Bakhtiar petrochemical plant. Pajoohan said PRTC was receiving 85-90% of its required equipment from Iranian companies.per barrels and could easily manipulate the market by pushing Iran and Venezuela out of the market. “Therefore, this is not merely a political matter, but an economic one, too, which was presented as a political issue and they enforced it by bullying.” Elsewhere, he said that the central bank of Iran (CBI) was to bankroll Siraf refining project by investing Rls. 200,000 billion in the plan. He added the project was under way and the central bank had agreed to fund it. He further described compressed natural gas (CNG) as the national fuel for Iran, adding the fuel needed to be supported as such, even though energy intensity of the country would not be improved by replacing petrol with CNG; however, this could be a major economic success for the country. The official further said that the issues concerning pollution of the fuels producers domestically needed to be addressed in the automotive industr