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Iran increases refining capacity by %40 in 2 years

File photo shows a view to the Setare Khalije Fars refinery, the world's biggest natural-gas condensate refinery, located in southern Iranian city of Bandar Abbas.

Iranian authorities say sanctions on the country’s oil industry has caused a boom in the refining sector as the capacity for turning crude into others products has increased by nearly 40 percent in the past two years.

A deputy to Iran’s oil minister said on Monday that the total operating capacity of Iran’s refineries had increased from 1,550,000 to 2,150,000 barrels per day (bpd) in the two-year period ending in May 2019.

Alireza Sadeq Abadi said that plans were in place to further expand the refining sector and bring the total capacity of the refineries across the country to 2,400,000 bpd at the end of the current Iranian calendar year which in March.

The official said the increase in refining capacity was in line with the Oil Ministry’s strategies to cope with the impacts of sanctions imposed by the United Sates on Iran’s oil industry.

“With the implementation of our programs, some 850,000 barrels of oil and natural-gas condensates which could fail to reach the international markets due to America’s unilateral sanctions have been refined inside the country and turned into products with higher added value,” said Sadeq Abadi.

The official, who serves as managing director of National Iranian Oil Refining and Distribution Company (NIORDC), said Iran was pursuing a policy of maximizing the input given to the country’s refineries.

He said the amount of condensates fed to the refineries will increase by more than 10 percent to reach 500,000 bpd until March while the NIORDC seeks to increase the amount of crude input by nearly 15 percent to reach 1,900,000 bpd in the same period.


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