News / Energy

Iranian president rolls out $1.25bn worth of oil projects

Thursday, 26 November 2020 4:22 PM [ Last Update: Thursday, 26 November 2020 4:42 PM ]

Photo taken on November 26, 2020 shows technical staff posing for a photo in front of installations at the newly-opened petrochemical plant in the city of Lordegan, in the province of Chaharmahal and Bakhtiari in central Iran.

Iran has launched three major oil projects with an investment amounting to $1.25 billion as the country presses ahead with plans to expand its massive energy sector.

Iranian President Hassan Rouhani used a video conference call on Thursday to open the projects, said a report on the website of his office.

The projects have cost 300 trillion rials to finish, said the report, adding that they would create 850 permanent jobs in the three provinces they are located.

The projects included a major petrochemical plant in the city of Lordegan, located in the central province of Chaharmahal and Bakhtiari. The plant will produce three million tons per annum (mpta) of petchem products with a focus on urea, a fertilizer widely used in the agriculture sector.

Iranian Oil Minister Bijan Namdar Zanganeh told Rouhani during the inauguration ceremony that the $940-million plant in Lordegan will help improve economic conditions in the relatively deprived region. He said the project will significantly boost Iran’s current output of 6.5 mpta of urea, enabling the country to tap more foreign markets for exports.

Rouhani on Thursday also opened Iran’s first skid mounted oil refinery at a major oilfield near the border with Iraq in the southwestern province of Khuzestan.

The refinery is also a first in Iran to enjoy full foreign investment, said a report by IRNA news agency which added that an unidentified European company had provided the $46.9 million in investment for the project. The report said Iran’s Oil Ministry will pay $1.28 for each barrel of oil processed at the refinery in West Karun oilfield where the initial processing capacity will be 35,000 barrels per day.

The third project opened on Thursday was a $40-million facility for storage of gas condensates obtained from the sprawling South Pars gas field located in the Persian Gulf. The project includes eight storage tanks with a capacity of 640,000 cubic meters (around 4 million barrels), according to IRNA.