Iranian President Ebrahim Raeisi has inaugurated a new expansion project in the country’s flagship Abadan Refinery.
Raeisi on Monday traveled to Iran’s southwestern province of Khouzestan, where the Abadan Refinery and many of Iran’s oil and gas installations are located, to launch a first part of the refinery’s second phase.
Some $1.2 billion has been spent on the massive development plan in Abadan Refinery to increase its processing capacity by 210,000 barrels per day (bpd).
Output in the refinery, which is Iran’s largest and oldest, will reach to cover 14 million liters per day of gasoline and 20 million liters per day of diesel.
Oil Ministry authorities said the expansion project in Abadan Refinery is aimed at reducing Iran’s vulnerability to sanctions imposed on its direct oil exports and to complete the value chain in the country’s oil sector.
The project will also boost the quality of the fuels produced in Abadan Refinery and will lead to a reduction in emissions by cutting back on mazut production in the facility from 45% of its total output to some 26%.
Built by the Anglo-Persian Oil Company (later BP) in 1912, Abadan Refinery was the world's first oil refinery to reach a capacity of processing 25 million metric tons (183.25 million barrels) of crude oil per year.