Page 9 - DMEA Week 15 2022

DMEA REFINING DMEA

Iran to kick off work

on Soleimani refinery

MIDDLE EAST IRAN is set to begin construction work on its projects would be commissioned swiftly, antici-
300,000 barrel per day (bpd) Shahid Ghasem pating operations beginning within two or three
Soleimani refinery as it builds out downstream years.
processing capacity. In February, the minister said that refining
The country’s Minister of Petroleum Javad capacity would rise by around 200,000 bpd in
Owji said this week that work would begin to the next two or three years. “We have signed
develop the new refinery in April alongside the contracts for an additional 1.46mn bpd to be
360,000 bpd Persian Gulf Star Refinery (PGSR) implemented in a period of four to six years for
in the wider Bandar Abbas refining complex on refineries that produce feedstock for petrochem-
Iran’s southern coast. ical plants,” he added, noting that each 100,000
The refinery, named in honour of Islamic bpd increment would cost around $2.5-3bn,
Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) general inferring a total outlay of $36.5-43.8bn.
Qasem Soleimani, who was assassinated in early Meanwhile, the following month, the Min-
2020, will be constructed at an estimated cost of istry of Petroleum (MoP) announced it had
$11.5bn. received budgetary approval to expand refining
Owji noted that the facility, which will be an capacity by 300,000 bpd, with private sector and
integrated refining and petrochemical plant “will foreign investment likely to be sought.
help increase the production of gasoline and The head of the National Iranian Oil Engi-
other value-added products”. neering and Construction Co. (NIOEC), Farhad
Meanwhile, he said: “For refineries such as Ahmadi, then said that $18bn would be spent on
Bandar Abbas, Tehran and Tabriz, the quality upgrading the country’s refineries and associ-
improvement plan and value added of their ated infrastructure, covering the 360,000 bpd
products have been defined in the form of eight Abadan refinery ($1.85bn), a facility of unspec-
projects,” referring to a country-wide down- ified capacity in Khuzestan ($4.5bn) and the
stream expansion project. He said that the Soleimani unit.™

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