Deputy Oil Minister Ali-Reza Zeighami said the ministry has revoked a contract with the Malaysian SKS Ventures Company for the Shiraz Pars Refinery project.
Zeighami said Friday that the annulment has been due to the firm’s repeated delays and failure to start either financing or construction of the project.
This has been the repeatedly-cited reason for booting out a multitude of foreign firms holding contracts with Iran but unwilling to move forward with them.
He said Iranian contractors will now take over the construction of the refinery.
Zeighami, who is the managing director of the National Iranian Oil Refining and Distribution Company, said $1.3 billion will be invested in Shiraz Pars Refinery project by government and private sector.
“While some of the equipment needed for the project might be imported from abroad, the management, designing, construction, and commissioning of the refinery’s units will be entirely carried out by Iranian contractors,” he stressed.
Zeighami said SKS held 40 percent of the refinery’s ownership, and had signed the contract with Iran to develop the project five years ago.
Shiraz Pars Refinery will be the first national condensate refinery in Iran.
Upon inauguration, it will have a daily capacity to refine 120,000 barrels of condensate and produce 12 million liters of gasoline conforming to the Euro-5 pollution standards.
A 430-kilometer pipeline will carry the unit’s feedstock from Asaluyeh on the Persian Gulf coast to the refinery.