TEHRAN, Feb. 14 (Shana) � Iran has joined the club of few countries that can produce pentane, a strategic gas product, Iranian Offshore Oil Company (IOOC) announced.

Mohammad Reza Safari Rad, deputy director of Siri NGL Refinery at IOOC, said Iranian experts have managed to develop a new and highly called for gas product, pentane.

Siri NGL Refinery is the first suppliers of the product in Iran so far, he said.

Safari Rad the development makes Iran the first Middle East and Persian Gulf state to produce pentane, saying the strategic item has several applications in petrochemical and chemical industries and is valued several times a barrel of crude oil.

Siri Refinery can process 300 barrels/day of pentane and has so far produced 50,000 barrels of the product. Iran will presently export its first pentene consignment.

By SHANA