Page 10 - DMEA Week 02 2023
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DMEA REFINING DMEA
Iran launches region’s largest
CDU at Abadan refinery
MIDDLE EAST THE Middle East’s largest crude distillation unit 92% complete, adding that it would be finalised
(CDU) has gone online at Iran’s Abadan refinery during the summer.
with a capacity of 210,000 barrels per day (bpd). This covered the installation of new hydrogen
This article provides further detail to a breaking processing, hydrocracking, liquefied petroleum
news story carried in last week’s Downstream gas units as well as the CDU and other utilities.
MEA (DMEA). The full second phase is expected to stabi-
Managing director of the National Iranian Oil lise Abadan’s throughput capacity at 360,000
and Engineering Co. (NIOEC) Farhad Ahmadi bpd with NIORDC expecting the project to be
announced the project’s launch last week after completed and all new units on-stream by the
beginning work in September 2017. end of the current Iranian calendar year, which
He estimated total project investment at concludes in March 2023.
€2.6bn ($2.77bn), saying: “Due to the pressure NIORDC’s project manager Ahmad
of sanctions, the project was divided into two Farzaneh reported to the Ministry of Petroleum
sections. €1bn [$1.1bn] was invested in the first (MoP) that the second part of phase 2 would
section.” The latter sum is lower than previous encompass hydrogen treatment and gasoline
estimates. production units, including continuous catalytic
Ahmadi noted that the project had faced reforming, naphtha hydrotreater, isomerisation,
numerous issues over the past five years or so, gasoline hydrotreater, kerosene hydrotreater and
including sanctions, a lack of financial resources, utility units “and related ancillary facilities will
the coronavirus pandemic, fine dust and unprec- be built with an investment of about $1.7bn.”
edented heat. The Abadan complex, which comprises two
The second section of the distillation unit is refining facilities with capacities of 150,000 bpd
expected to be completed by early 2026 as Teh- and 210,000 bpd respectively, is the Middle East’s
ran aims to ensure the refinery’s products meet oldest refinery.
Euro-V specifications. NIORDC and its parent firm the National
Abadan oil refinery, located in the southwest Iranian Oil Co. (NIOC) are planning a major
of Iran has been at the epicentre of the coun- downstream expansion, with various greenfield
try’s oil industry for more than 100 years. It was plants and brownfield upgrade projects seen
built by the Anglo-Persian Oil Co., now BP. The adding 1.77mn bpd of oil and 65,000 bpd of con-
nationalisation of the refinery in 1951 prompted densate refining capacity.
the Abadan Crisis and ultimately led to the top- However, with Oil Minister Javad Owji sug-
pling of democratically elected Prime Minister gesting that each increment of 100,000 bpd could
Mohammad Mosaddegh. cost as much as $3bn, such a target is highly
In April, the National Iranian Oil Refining unlikely to be reached. In February, perhaps
and Distribution Co. (NIORDC) said its Abadan more realistically, he said that refining capacity
Refinery Development and Stabilisation Project could rise by around 200,000 bpd within two or
– the facility’s second phase of development –was three years.
P10 www. NEWSBASE .com Week 02 12•January•2023
