Iran’s National Petrochemical Company (NPC) is to inaugurate two new petro-refineries in the Abadan and Tabriz facilities to produce benzene and butylene.
NPC Director for Planning and Development Ramezan Owladi said Wednesday, “There is the possibility of producing benzene at Tabriz Oil Refinery and butylene at Abadan Oil Refinery.”
Owladi stated that the National Iranian Oil Refining and Distribution Company (NIORDC) and the country’s petrochemical sector have also discussed the projects, which are aimed at integrating Iran’s oil refineries and petrochemical complexes to enhance profitability and reduce costs.
“Currently, the construction and commissioning of oil refineries are less profitable compared to petro-refinery projects,” Oladi said, adding, “Countries like China and Saudi Arabia have also moved toward petro-refinery projects.”
On March 14, Iran commissioned its biggest gasoline production hub with a daily production capacity of 16 million liters near the central city of Shazand. The country’s first petro-refinery at Shazand Oil Refinery can also produce an average of about one million liters of propylene per day.
Iran has expanded the range and volume of its petrochemical production significantly over the past few years, and the NPC has become the second largest producer and exporter of petrochemicals in the Middle East.
The country exported a total of 18.2 million tons of petrochemical and polymer products, worth about 14.2 billion dollars, to more than 60 countries in the previous Iranian calendar year (ended March 20, 2012).
The Islamic Republic attained self-sufficiency in fuel production after its international suppliers stopped selling gasoline to Tehran under US pressure.
