Baku, Azerbaijan, May 14
By Fatih Karimov - Trend:
Iran will build a new oil refinery with a daily refining capacity of 210,000 barrels.
Managing director of National Iranian Oil Refining and Distribution Company (NIORDC), Abbas Kazemi, said it is planned to begin construction this year, Iran's Shana news agency reported on May 14.
"Chinese investors will finance the €2.6 billion project," he noted. "The new refinery will be built within premises of old Abadan refinery, southwest of the country."
The project will boost the refinery's gasoline production from 60,000 barrels per day to 81,000 bpd, kerosene from 18,000 bpd to 45,000 bpd. Moreover, 20,000 bpd of high quality gasoline will be produced.
On May 7, Oil Minister Bijan Zanganeh said Iran plans within four years to boost crude-output capacity by 1 million barrels a day at fields it shares with neighboring states, Bloomberg reported.
"This will be the biggest achievement in the history of the oil industry in Iran," he said.
The fourth-largest producer in the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries is also pressing ahead with work at South Pars, part of a gas deposit straddling the border with Qatar, according to Zanganeh.
Iran expects to complete several of the project's 17 phases in about three years, he said.
The government is trying to attract foreign investment in crude, natural gas and chemicals production, as it seeks the removal of U.S. and European sanctions.
An increase in oil-production capacity on the scale Zanganeh described would boost Iran's output by as much as 35 percent, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. The country pumped 2.84 million barrels a day in April, the data show.
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