TEHRAN: Iran has signed contracts with South Korean and Chinese companies to upgrade its refineries, while a new contract with Japanese companies worth $3.6 billion is expected to be sealed soon, CEO of the National Iranian Oil Refining and Distribution Company (NIORDC) Abbas Kazemi said Feb.1. He added that China has opened a credit line worth $1.3 billion for developing Iran’s Abadan refinery and China Petroleum & Chemical Corporation (Sinopec) would start this $3-billion project this month. The project is aimed to reduce the share of fuel oil in the final products basket from the current 40 percent to about 20-22 percent. He also said that Iran has signed a $2-billion agreement with South Korean Daelim company to develop the Isfahan refinery and it’s expected that Japanese Marubeni, Mitsui and Chiyoda Corporation will sign agreements worth $3.6 billion with Iran to upgrade its refineries. In total, Iran plans to renew and build refineries to boost its oil refining capacity from the current 1.8 mb/d to above 3.1 mb/d. For renewing the existing refineries, Iran needs some $14 billion worth of investment.
The main goal is to increase the products’ standards as well as decrease the fuel oil output ratio from the current 24 percent to 10 percent in average. Coming to new projects, Iran plans to complete four refineries, with overall capacity of 1.290 mb/d, and inaugurate them. The Persian Gulf Star Refinery will add 360,000 b/d, while Siraf Complex, Anahita and Bahman Geno refineries will add 480,000 b/d, 150,000 b/d and 300,000 b/d to Iran’s current refining capacity. Kazemi said that the first phase of the Persian Gulf Star Refinery with 120,000 b/d capacity would become operational in spring. He said that Iran imported 11.8 million liters of gasoline per day during 10 months of the current fiscal year, but the imports would stop by inaugurating the first phase of Persian Gulf Star Refinery. The second phase of updating Abadan refinery also would finish by summer.
