Although condensate obtained from gas fields is categorized as a type of ultra-light oil and has plenty of customers, they were not included under the terms of international sanctions.
In recent years, Iran was allowed to export only one million barrels of crude per day to China, India, Turkey, South Korea and Japan; however, there were no restrictions on the sale of gas condensate.
Of course, certain pressures and excuses were imposed by Western governments leading to some problems in the sales of gas condensate.
During the sanction years and apart from the ban on oil exports, Iranian gas condensate has had its own customers in target markets in Asia with the major buyers including China, United Arab Emirates, South Korea and Japan.
In recent months, due to the success of talks between Iran and the 5+1, the process of selling Iranian gas condensate from South Pars gas field has become facilitated.
“Exports of gas condensate from Iran’s South Pars gas field rose by 80 percent in the seventh Iranian calendar month of Mehr (September 22-October 22) compared to the same month in the previous year,” said Seyed Pirouz Mousavi, the managing director of the Iranian Oil Terminals Company (IOTC).
He noted, “Iran exported 14.725 million barrels of gas condensate in the mentioned month, compared to 8.123 million barrels in the same month last year.”
The official also announced that the country’s gas condensate exports stood at 73.821 million barrels in the first half of the current Iranian calendar year (March 21-Septemebr 21), showing 16 percent growth year on year.
“Following the oil ministry’s measures to prevent the export of raw materials into more valuable products in near future, a large amount of gas condensate will be consumed by domestic refineries including the Persian Gulf Star refinery,” he asserted.
“The nation's condensate production now stands at 550,000 barrels per day, of which 240,000 BPD is consumed domestically and 310,000 BPD is exported,” he added.
Mousavi went on to highlight that, “of Iran's current condensate production, some 90 percent comes from the South Pars field which Iran shares with Qatar in the Persian Gulf and contains significant amounts of gas and condensate. “