Iran’s state refiner NIORDC has begun running units in the second 120,000 b/d phase of the much-delayed three-phase Persian Gulf Star (PGS) condensate splitter project at Bandar Abbas.
PGS-1, where construction began in 2007, was slowed by a lack of funds during sanctions. Despite this, PGS was touted as a strategic project, vital to ending Iran’s reliance on gasoline imports. When PGS-1 started up in April 2017, its naphtha reformer was not operating, so naphtha output was exported rather than converted into reformate, a gasoline blending component. Gasoline imports at the time were 60,000 b/d (MEES, 5 May 2017). (CONTINUED - 762 WORDS)
