Restoration of two dilapidated oil turbines by Iranian experts has saved the country $6 million in hard currency, deputy managing director of Iranian Oil Pipelines and Telecommunication Company (IOPTC) said Sunday during a ceremony in which the two 3.4-megawatt turbines officially went into operation.
The IOPTC was short of $6 million credit to procure and purchase the full package of the turbines, Mohammad Mehdi Olamaei was quoted by IRNA as saying. However, using domestic expertise the two turbines are now restored to working order at a low cost. To repair the appliances some 1,500 pieces were utilized over 12,000 man-hours. Increasing capacity, stabilizing transfer of oil products, and cutting on expenditures are among the advantages of the restoration project.
The pieces were purchased and procured from domestic manufacturers, with some 50 of them having been manufactured in Khorramabad, Lorestan Province.
The turbines were previously operating in the vital Tang-e-Fanni pumping station near southern city of Dezful, which was bombed by Iraqi warplanes in December 1986, during the Iran-Iraq war. The turbines were out of service since the incident.
Tang-e-Fanni is Iran’s most crucial and the Middle East’s second pumping station. Located in Pol Dokhtar, Lorestan Province, it supplies oil for Tehran, Arak, and Kermanshah refineries. Capacity of the restored turbines will be exploited now to transfer oil from Tang-e-Fanni and Asara pumping stations.
Meanwhile, Olamaei said that Iran has achieved self-sufficiency in production of Solar gas turbines for oil pipeline transmission. He added that IOPTC can now build turbines for crude oil pumping.
