Official: Iran 1st Exporter of Catalysts among OPEC Members

Vice-Chairman of Association of Catalyst Producers of Iran Abdolreza Hamidi announced that the country ranked first among members of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) in exporting catalysts. "Iran is now the first catalyst exporter among the OPEC members," Hamidi said on Tuesday.

"Out of highly-used catalysts, 44 have been produced domestically for the petrochemical industry," he added. Hamidi said through exporting catalysts, Iran has put an end to the monopoly of Universal Oil Products (UOP) which used to supply catalysts to Iran.

He expressed pleasure that under the tough US sanctions, Iran no more needs importing its commonly-used catalysts, noting that the country exports its produced catalysts to Iraq, Armenia, Pakistan, Syria, and Kazakhstan.

Managing Director of Iran's Persian Gulf Star Refinery Mohammad Ali Dadvar announced in December 2018 that despite the US sanctions, Iranian researchers had been able to produce catalysts needed for production of gasoline.

"Production of catalysts needed for gasoline production units have always been monopolized by a small number of British, French and US firms that have not allowed others at all to achieve the know-how," Dadvar said. "But despite the sanctions, Iran has become needless of imports of catalysts," he added.

Dadvar said that one of the Iranian knowledge-based companies, namely Supplying Petrochemical Industries Part Equipment and Chemical Engineering Company (SPEC), assisted the refinery with production of all catalysts needed for gasoline production. - Fars