“With the rise in feedstock refining the company has added 4.7 million liters a day of petroleum products to its output including 1.13 million liters of gasoline, 1.05 million liters diesel, 2.4 million liters mazut and 120,000 liters of LPG,” Tasnim News Agency quoted Hashem Namvar as saying.
The project to increase refining capacity to 30,000 barrels per day seeks to reduce the sale of crude oil and improve export of value-added goods, he said.
“Improving the quality of mazut and reducing its sulfur content, increasing productivity and optimize energy consumption are other achievements of this project”.
Bandar Abbas Refinery plans to build a coke unit which will use fuel oil as feedstock to produce value-added products, he said.
The unit will take three years to complete and will produce around 700,000 tons of mostly needle coke. Namvar said the refinery has prioritized coke production to curb import of the material that has extensive use in industrial plants.
Needle coke, also called acicular coke, is a highly crystalline petroleum coke used in the production of electrodes for the steel and aluminum industries and is particularly valuable because the electrodes must be replaced regularly.
"Executive operations with a $1.5 billion credit will start by fall. Fuel oil production in the plant will be cut below 10% and sulfur will reach 1% of weight percentage”.
Located off the Persian Gulf in southern Hormozgan Province, the refinery is one of the largest in the Middle East with a refining capacity of more than 380,000 barrels per day.
Bandar Abbas Refinery accounts for an estimated 18% of the total petroleum products made in Iran, including gasoline, diesel, mazut, liquefied petroleum gas, kerosene, jet fuel, bitumen and sulfur.
The feed for the refinery is heavy crude and gas condensates. Based on a development program, the refining company has built new units.
Demand in international markets for clean fuel, the need to reduce the production of heavy fuels with lower added value, improving quality in line with global standards in terms of environmental issues, saving energy and increasing profitability are priority issues, the company says.
The refinery has taken measures to help improve the quality of products in compliance with Euro 4 standard. By launching a diesel hydro-treatment unit, the amount of sulfur, nitrogen and aromatic content has been reduced to acceptable levels and allows diesel refining. It helps eliminate harmful environmental effects of sulfur particles in the air.
The refinery plans to promote environmentally-friendly fuel and improve both the quality and quantity of its products.
According to the managing director, the ideal process of refining in an oil refinery is when the maximum amount of feed is converted to valuable oil products with minimum energy consumption and the least amount of waste.