Abadan Oil Refinery’s new policies are not only increasing the production of alkylate gasoline—a type of very high-octane variety, but also upgrading the quality of its regular gasoline output to comply with Euro-4 standards, the chief executive director of National Iranian Oil Refining and Distribution Company said.
“We must convert a considerable amount of Abadan refinery’s gasoline production to Euro-4 quality and boost alkylate gasoline output to reach 2.5 million liters per day,” Alireza Sadeqabadi also told Shana on Sunday.
Esfandiar Daemolzekr, the refinery’s managing director, said last month that plans have been devised to start the production of Euro-4 gasoline by the end of the current fiscal year (ending March 20, 2019).
Alkylate gasoline, often referred to as environmental gasoline, does not contain any aromatics or olefins which, among other things, means carcinogenic emissions are reduced by up to 90%.
Sadeqabadi expressed optimism that the implementation of the refinery’s second phase of development will gain momentum and Phase 4’s details would be further clarified.
According to the official, Abadan refinery’s daily gasoline production has reached 12 million liters from 9.5 million liters in a few months.
“The aging refinery is a part of Iran’s oil industry history, thus it should be converted to a modern complex,” he said.
Commissioned in 1912, Abadan refinery in Khuzestan Province is the longest-running Iranian crude processing plant and one of the largest in the world.
The refinery was heavily damaged during the 1980-88 Iran-Iraq War. It is now operating with a daily processing capacity of around 400,000 barrels.
Hamid Sharif Razi, managing director of the National Iranian Oil Engineering and Construction Company, said in March that Abadan's refinery is slated to be developed in four phases.
“In the first phase, which has been carried out by NIOECC, the refinery’s distillation unit was upgraded, while the third phase’s goal was to build a fluid catalytic cracking unit that has also been accomplished.”
FCC is one of the most important conversion processes used in petroleum refineries.
Razi noted that the second development phase of the refinery, which is being implemented by a consortium of Iranian and Chinese companies, is aimed at building a new refinery with an oil processing capacity of 210,000 barrels per day in the refinery’s section that has a current capacity of 150,000 bpd.
“The refinery’s mazut output is to be reduced to less than 10% in phases 3 and 4,” Razi said, stressing that an Iranian-Chinese consultancy firm was carrying out studies to select the best feasible process to fulfill the goal, which was expected to be completed in early June.
