UpdateIran’s Abadan oil refinery operating as normal following blast

24 May 2011 14:14  [Source: ICIS news]

(adds further detail on plant production levels and death toll throughout)

LONDON (ICIS)--The Abadan oil refinery in southwestern Iran continues to operate at full capacity following an explosion and fire caused by a gas leak on Tuesday, according to reports. 

The blast has killed as many as four people and injured 17, media reports said.

In an interview with Iranian TV channel one, engineer Abdolreza Mehraban, the managing director of the Abadan Refinery Company, said the entire refinery is working in its full capacity of 400,000 bbl/year and that its petrol production remains at full capacity of 9.5m litres/day.

Mehraban added that any damage that had been caused would hopefully be repaired in the next few days, according to the BBC Monitoring Newsfile, quoting state-run Iranian TV channel one.

President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who was at the site at the time for the inauguration of a new phase of the refinery, was not hurt.

Despite differing news reports, Mehraban said that only one person had been killed. ICIS could not independently confirm the death toll.

By: Franco Capaldo
+44 (0)20 8652 3214

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