TEHRAN - Iranian Oil Minister Javad Oji, says that the Petroleum Ministry has managed to change the Abadan Oil refinery into a profitable one.

In a report to the cabinet on Sunday, May 6, Javad Oji said that the Abadan oil refinery’s second phase of development had been completed by relying on the capabilities of domestic contractors, experts, and manufacturers, so currently the refinery was one of the most profitable oil refining facilities in the country, with a 12 trillion rials ( about $24 million), profit last year.

“This profitability happened while the former minister of petroleum, in 2015, had announced the refinery as a loss-making business which should be transferred for free.”, the minister said in his report to the cabinet.

Oji said: Gasoline production at the Abadan oil refinery has gone up from 8.0 million liters per day at the beginning of the 13th administration in office in August 2021 to 15 million liters now, while gasoil output has risen to 19 million liters, up by 4 million liters when compared with its production when the current administration took office.

According to him, the oil refinery sat on top of the list of oil products exporters at the Energy and Commodity Exchange last year.

 He further noted that the hydrocracker unit of the refinery will come online over the next two months which will increase the value of its euro-5 gasoline production by another 3.0 million euros.

Since taking office in August 2021, the number of Abadan oil refinery’s oil-derived products has reached 34 items while three years ago it produced only 21 oil-derived products amid the creation of 1300 job opportunities over the last year and the potential to deploy another 600 workforce this year, the minister of petroleum concluded.

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