TEHRAN – Managing Director of Iran’s Piroozi refinery which is the country’s second gas condensate refinery said the refinery, which was ravaged by fire soon after it was inaugurated in 2016, is planned to go operational by the Iranian month of Bahman (starts on January 21, 2020), IRNA reported.

“If the barriers are removed, the capacity of the refinery will reach 50,000 barrels a day, which could generate up to $1 billion of revenues for the country,” Hamid Varesi told the press on Tuesday.

Noting that the refinery was inaugurated in 2016 but was set on fire in the same year, he said: “After the incident the refinery went out of operation, the reconstruction operations were started earlier this year and we hope that it will go operational by Bahman.”

According to the official, when inaugurated, the refinery will be able to process 15,000 barrels of condensate per day.

Pointing out that the refinery's products include LPG, crude gasoline, kerosene and diesel, the official said the destination markets for the refinery’s products will be the eastern neighbors and then the Persian Gulf states.

He explained the reason for the refinery fire in 2016 as a human error and added: "In the reconstruction operations various new safety and security layers have been designed and implemented."

EF/MA