Reports say Japan is set to receive its first cargo of naphtha from Iran after the removal of sanctions against the country by the end of this week.
The cargo – which would end a hiatus of over six years in imports of the crucial fuel from Iran by Japan - would be delivered to the country’s industrial giant Mitsubishi, media quoted a source with direct knowledge of the matter as saying.
Japan last imported 42,212 tons of naphtha from Iran in 2011, reported the energy news service Platts.
Japan’s trading houses and refiners did not import any naphtha from Iran after the country faced a series of US-led sanctions in 2012, added the report which was also carried by Iran’s English-language newspaper The Financial Tribune.
This is the second shipment of naphtha made from Iran’s major Persian Gulf Star Refinery.
The first went to the UAE.
"A couple of months ago, the crude distillation units of the refinery produced diesel, LPG and naphtha. The CCR [continuous catalytic reforming] units are in the pre-commissioning phase. I hope this will take two or three months," Platts quoted Iran's deputy oil minister, Abbas Kazemi, as saying in an interview.
"Phase two will come maybe six months later, so by 2018 we should have full capacity," said Kazemi, who is also president of the National Iranian Oil Refining and Distribution Company (NIORDC).
Two others phases of the Persian Gulf Star Refinery will triple its gasoline output to 36 million liters per day, Platts added.
Combined with 3 million liters per day of gasoline from the new units at the Bandar Abbas refinery, Iran's total domestic gasoline production could rise by 39 million liters per day to 103 million liters per day, making it a significant net exporter of gasoline, Kazemi added.
