Page 10 - DMEA Week 14 2022

DMEA REFINING DMEA

Iran pushing forward on

upgrade of Abadan refinery

MIDDLE EAST THE National Iranian Oil Refining and Distri- stream by the end of the current Iranian calendar
bution Co. (NIORDC) anticipates that it will year, which concludes in March 2023.
complete the first part of its project to upgrade Farzaneh said that the second part of phase
and stabilise Abadan within the next 12 months. 2 would encompass hydrogen treatment and
The company’s manager for the Abadan gasoline production units, including continu-
Refinery Development and Stabilisation Pro- ous catalytic reforming, naphtha hydrotreater,
ject – the refinery’s second development phase isomerisation, gasoline hydrotreater, kerosene
– Ahmad Farzaneh said this week that the facil- hydrotreater and utility units “and related ancil-
ity’s throughput capacity would be stabilised at lary facilities will be built with an investment of
360,000 barrels per day (bpd), through the addi- about $1.7bn.”
tion of new units to replace ageing parts of the The figures vary significantly from those pro-
facility. The Abadan complex, which comprises vided in early March by the head of the National
two refining facilities with capacities of 150,000 Iranian Oil Engineering and Construction Co.
bpd and 210,000 bpd respectively, is the Middle (NIOEC), Farhad Ahmadi, who said that the
East’s oldest refinery. Abadan upgrade would come in at a total of
“In addition to stabilising the refinery’s capac- $1.85bn.
ity at 360,000 bpd, all 360,000 barrels of refined Ahmadi had also outlined plans to invest
products in phase 2 will be refined in hydrogen nearly $18bn to improve and expand Iran’s
units and the standard of the items will be raised refining sector, highlighting the $11.5bn Shahid
to Euro 5,” Farzaneh said. Ghasem Soleimani refinery, which will have a
Phase 2 is split into two stages, with the first capacity of 300,000 bpd, another $4.5bn facil-
of these comprising hydrogen production units, ity of unspecified capacity in Khuzestan and
hydrocrackers, an LPG distillation unit, crude Abadan.
and vacuum distillation units, utility units and This followed comments from Oil Minis-
ancillary facilities. According to Farzaneh, ter Javad Owji, who said that refining capacity
the cost for this stage is expected to come in at would rise by around 200,000 bpd in the next
around $1.26bn. two or three years, noting that each 100,000 bpd
He said that these units would come on increment would cost around $2.5-3bn.™

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