The second development phase of Abadan Oil Refinery in Khuzestan Province is making progress as per the envisaged plans, the refinery’s managing director said.
“The development phase, which started 14 months ago, is aimed at enhancing the refinery’s quality of products to comply more with international standards and reduce mazut output,” Ali Akbar Mirqaderi was also quoted as saying by Shana, the Oil Ministry’s official news agency, on Sunday.
Mirqaderi hoped that the project would be complete on schedule, which is 48 months after the plan's commencement.
Hamid Sharif Razi, the managing director of National Iranian Oil Engineering and Construction Company, told ISNA in March that the second development phase of the refinery being implemented by a consortium of Iranian and Chinese companies.
"The phase is aimed at building a new refinery with an oil processing capacity of 210,000 barrels per day in the Abadan refinery’s latest section that was constructed over 40 years ago and its current capacity stands at 150,000 barrels per day," he said.
“A new refinery with a capacity of processing a total of 360,000 barrels a day will be built on the site.”
Commissioned in 1912, Abadan refinery is the longest-running Iranian crude processing plant. Heavily damaged during the 1980-88 Iran-Iraq war, it is now operating with a daily processing capacity of around 400,000 barrels.
Noting that Abadan refinery is slated to be developed in four phases, Razi said that 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.
“The refinery’s amount of mazut output is due to decline by less than 10% in Phase 4,” he said, stressing that currently, an Iranian-Chinese consultancy firm is carrying out studies to select the best process to fulfill the goal.
"The fourth phase will probably be handed over to a contractor through tender," he added.
