An estimated €2 billion in foreign investment has been made in Abadan Oil Refinery in the southern Khuzestan Province in the past two years, CEO of the National Iranian Oil Refining and Distribution Company said.
"China's Sinopec International Petroleum Exploration and Production Corporation has invested €2 billion in development projects in the refinery since 2017," Alireza Sadeqabadi was quoted as saying by IRNA.
Development plans in the key complex will be carried out in two phases and cost $3 billion, he said.
Sadeqabadi said operations for the first phase, which focused on boosting quality and production, ended last year.
"Work on the second phase began soon after and is making good progress," he added, noting that Sinopec IP and Oil Design and Construction Company of Iran are involved in the venture that includes installing a new crude distillation unit to replace three old units that were built half a century ago.
The new unit will have a production capacity of 210,000 barrels per day, which is 40,000 less than the combined capacity of the three decommissioned units but will elevate gasoline and diesel quality to Euro-5 standard.
The agreement signed in December 2016 is said to be the first major energy contract between Tehran and Beijing after the removal of international sanctions in January 2016.
Despite the re-imposition of US sanctions in November, Sinopec IP continues its work in Iran
Regarding reports in the foreign media about withdrawal of Chinese companies from Iran’s oil and gas projects, he said that despite the re-imposition of US sanctions in November, Sinopec IP continues its work in Iran.
Built in 1912, Abadan refinery is the first of its kind in Iran and once was the largest in the world.
The refinery was heavily damaged during the 1980-88 Iran-Iraq war. It is now operates with a daily capacity to refine 400,000 barrels of crude.
According to Ali Akbar Mirqaderi, the managing director of the refinery, a fluid catalytic cracking unit has been installed in the complex, which will help reduce mazut output in refinery to less than 10% from the present 37%.
Plans are underway to install a new boiler in the gas-fired power plant to reduce power consumption. The $6 million project will help the complex halve electricity consumption by generating high pressure steam.
Boilers, which perform as a closed vessel to convert water within into steam, are one of the most crucial elements in chemical processing plants.
