Iranian Abadan Refinery upgrading project halted temporarily due to coronavirus

Teheran, March 13 - Neftegaz.RU. Managing Director of National Iranian Oil Engineering and Construction Company (NIOEC) says all the operations of the Abadan Refinery’s upgrading 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 (first Iranian calendar month which starts on March 20)” Saeid Sattari Naeini said.

In December 2017, China’s Sinopec Engineering 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 ($1.05 billion) of investment into the project.

In January 2019, Alireza Sadeq-Abadi, the managing director of the National Iranian Oil Refining and Distribution Company (NIORDC) put China’s investment in the development project of the Abadan Refinery at about $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.