Fire Contained At Iran’s Oldest Refinery

Abadan refinery in south-west Iran, which supplies around 25 percent of the country’s fuel needs, caught fire Thursday.

Hakim Ghayyem, the refinery’s managing director, told IRNA Thursday afternoon the blaze had been contained with no fatalities or injuries, and that an investigation was underway into the damage and cause. The fire broke out at 10.32am, with some reports blaming faulty insulation.

Abadan, near the Persian Gulf coast, is Iran’s largest refinery with a daily capacity of 430,000 barrels of crude, producing liquefied petroleum gas, gasoline, kerosene, gas oil, jet fuel, furnace oil, bitumen, petroleum solvents, sulfur, and naphtha.

China Petroleum & Chemical Corporation (Sinopec) signed a $1-billion deal in 2017 to expand the refinery. Work on a second phase of the project was suspended in March 2020 due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

Abadan, opened in 1912 by the Anglo-Persian Oil Company originally as a pipeline terminus, quickly became one of the world's largest refineries and was an important supplier to the British military.

Earlier in April, an explosion and fire in the Bandar Mahshahr Petrochemical Special Economic Zone in southern Iran injured at least two workers. Several explosions and fires in Iranian military and industrial sites − including pipelines and refineries − since mid-2020 have not been fully explained by authorities.