TEHRAN- Iran has achieved the technical knowledge in the field of improving the quality of petroleum products, the managing director of the National Iranian Oil Refining and Distribution Company (NIORDC) stated.

Jalil Salari made the remarks in a ceremony for unveiling the document of the fundamental project of producing needle coke from residual fuel oils, which was held at the place of the Research Institute of Petroleum Industry (RIPI) on Tuesday.

The mentioned ceremony, which was held concurrent with the Government Week (starting on August 24), was participated by Azim Kalantari-Asal, the chairman of RIPI, Majid Rajabi, the managing director of Imam Khomeini Shazand Oil Refining Company, and a number of refining industry as well as RIPI director.

The plan for production of needle coke in Imam Khomeini Shazand Refinery is defined with the main goal of improving the quality of the refinery's heavy products, producing the strategic product of needle coke, and improving the existing environmental conditions, using the local technical knowledge of the Research Institute of Petroleum Industry.

The sponge coke production plan is underway by Bandar Abbas Refinery, and Imam Khomeini Shazand Refinery is also entering the EPC (Engineering, Procurement and Construction) phase with the delivery of the basic design documents for the production of needle coke.

Addressing the mentioned ceremony, the NIORDC managing director emphasized: "Today, we have reached the technical knowledge in the area of product quality improvement, and in addition to being self-sufficient in this area, we can also enter the field of exporting technical-engineering services and technical knowledge."

Needle coke is produced through two steps of delayed coking from petroleum residual oils and coal tar and calcination of the green coke in the kiln.

It is used as a primary material for electrode used in an electric steel furnace that melts and refines steel scrap.

Fortunately, with the efforts of domestic experts, today coke is produced in two grades, sponge and needle, inside the country, the NIRODC managing director further underlined.

Addressing the same ceremony, Azim Kalantari-Asal, the chairman of the Research Institute of Petroleum Industry, referred to the cooperation between this institute, Imam Khomeini Shazand Refinery, and the National Iranian Oil Refining and Distribution Company to develop technical knowledge in terms of the fuel oil chain, and said: “One of our bottlenecks in the development of the oil industry is the development of technical knowledge under the condition of providing financial resources.”

Saying that the daily production of fuel oil in the country's refineries is equivalent to the daily production of 400 oil wells, which is a very significant number, Kalantari-Asal explained, “If we consider the cost of drilling 20 oil wells and putting them into operation to be about 200 million dollars, it is a huge figure for 400 oil wells, and saving this amount of money leads to the creation of added value in the downstream chain of the oil industry, as well as spending it on the research and development sectors will sustainably, in addition to creating added value, cause the development of the downstream sectors of the oil industry.”

Photo: NIORDC Managing Director Jalili Salari (2nd L), RIPI Chairman Azim Kalantari-Asal (1st R), and Imam Khomeini Shazand Oil Refining Company Managing Director Majid Rajabi (1st L)