Iranian Refinery Project Halted Due to COVID-19, NIORDC Denies Output Decline

Director of National Iranian Oil Engineering and Construction Company (NIOEC) says all the operations of the Abadan Oil Refinery Optimization project (phase 2) have been halted to prevent the spread of coronavirus. “In order to prevent the spread of Coronavirus, the second phase of the Abadan refinery project will be halted from next week until mid-Farvardin (20 March-19 April 2020)” Saeed Sattari Naeini said.

In related news, the Spokesman of the National Iranian Oil Refining and Distribution Company (NIORDC) Mehdi Esmaeeli denied any production decrease in the refineries of the country due to the spread of COVID-19. Regarding phase 2 of the Abadan refinery optimization project, he said that phase 2 has not commissioned yet, but the operational work on the project has stopped as similar to past years. The operation will be resumed after the Norouz Holiday, he added.

This is worth mentioning that the halt of project has had no effect on the production capacity of the refinery, and the refinery is now online at full capacity.

In December 2017, China’s Sinopec Engineering (Group) Company, signed a deal with National Iranian Oil Engineering and Construction Company to contribute to engineering, procurement, and construction of phase II of the Abadan refinery upgrading project. The Chinese group was supposed to bring, approximately, 6.86 billion yuan (US$1.05 billion) of investment into the project.

In January 2019, Managing Director of the National Iranian Oil Refining and Distribution Company (NIORDC) Ali-Reza Sadeghabadi put China’s investment in the development project of the Abadan Refinery at about US$2 billion. The official noted that NIORDC is in talks with several other renowned foreign companies in order to attract investment for renovating and overhauling refineries of the country.

Located in Abadan near the coast of the Persian Gulf in southwestern Iran, Abadan refinery was built by the Anglo-Persian Oil Company (later BP), it was completed in 1912 and was one of the world's largest oil refineries. - Tehran Times, IRNA