Iran 'to boost refining capacity by 974,000 bpd in five years'

Aug 21, 2006, 12:45 GMT

Nicosia - Iran plans to increase its crude oil distillation capacity by a total of 974,000 barrels per day over the next five years, by expanding existing refineries and building new ones, the Middle East Economic Survey reported Monday.

The Cyprus-based weekly said the National Iranian Oil Refining and Distribution Company (NIORDC) plans to build a new refinery at Bandar Abbas, in addition to a condensate refinery there and a heavy oil refinery at Abadan announced earlier this year.

This third new refinery would have a crude distillation capacity of 160,000 barrels per day.

A major consideration in the decision to build the plant alongside the existing 232,000 barrels-per-day capacity Bandar Abbas refinery and the planned 360,000 barrels-per-day condensate refinery was the opportunity to minimize additional outlay on utilities, the report said.

The aim of the NIORDC refinery expansion plan was to increase crude processing capacity from the current level of almost 1.6 million barrels per day to 2.54 million barrels per day by 2011 by expanding capacity at existing refineries and building three new ones.

The investment requirement is estimated at 10-15 billion dollars to cover all crude and products capacity increases.

The crude handling expansion programme is part of an investment campaign intended to enable Iran to eradicate costly gasoline imports within three years in a bid to keep pace with booming domestic gasoline consumption.