Tehran Oil Refining Company plans to reduce energy consumption by 15% and lower mazut production to less than 10% of its total output from the current 20% over the next five years.
“In line with the guidelines of Resistance Economy and based on Tehran Oil Refinery’s scheduled plans, the refinery will decrease energy consumption by 15% in five years,” Mohammad Bidar, the company’s director of Engineering Planning Department, was quoted as saying by Shana on Tuesday.
Resistance Economy refers to a set of principles outlined by the Leader of Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei with the aim of bolstering domestic production and cutting dependence on oil revenues.
Tehran Oil Refinery is located 15 kilometers south of the capital and includes two sections (southern refinery and northern one). Its nominal crude refining capacity stands at over 230,000 barrels a day.
Bidar added that to increase investment and profitability, the company has set four goals: boosting gasoline quality to Euro 5 standards, increasing the company’s liquidity, raising profit from $1 per barrel of oil to $4 per barrel and producing six new products by 2021.
“With the proper implementation of the projects underway, Tehran's refinery is expected to produce high-quality products in a safe environment and become a distinguished refinery in the country, a pioneer in the Middle East and renowned in the world within years to come,” he said.
Referring to the company’s environment-friendly measures and its goal of materializing the ISO 14000 standards, the official noted that replacement of mazut with natural gas as fuel, installation of a waste incineration machine, setting up oxygen analyzers on 34 furnaces and installing online analyzers of pollutant gases on six other furnaces have been the main eco-friendly measures of the company.
Bidar stressed that the company plans to produce gasoline that is Euro 5-compliant, saying when octane rating rises to 91 from the current 87 and the gasoline’s benzene declines to less than 1%, Tehran refinery will have the potential of producing Euro 5 gasoline.
"To achieve the goal, it plans to build two new units of heavy naphtha purification and continuous catalytic regeneration in future," he said.
Underlining that the refinery’s project for reducing mazut production is in preliminary phases, he added that currently Tehran refinery’s mazut output stands at 20%, which is planned to be reduced to less than 10%.
Bidar said some projects such as the monitoring of furnace combustion that helps lower fuel consumption, the completion of a sour water stripper unit and a new steam line with the aim of optimizing production, distribution, consumption and maintenance of resources have so far come on stream in the refinery.
“The refinery has on its agenda the implementation of plans like boosting recycling capacity, setting up a nitrogen unit, replacing nitrogen with natural gas and installing the fourth bi-fuel turbine,” he said.
