MOSCOW (MRC) -- A leak detected on Saturday at the catalytic cracker of Iran's Abadan refinery was stopped and the unit was restored, the Iranian Oil Ministry's news website SHANA reported, said Hydrocarbonprocessing.
Hamid Reza Torki, the refinery's safety chief, denied reports on social media and news websites that an explosion had occurred at the refinery and that three workers had been injured, the state broadcaster IRIB said.
SHANA quoted the refinery as saying repairs were carried out swiftly and that there were no injuries or damage to facilities.
The head of the local environmental protection department meanwhile said a complaint was filed with judicial authorities against the refinery for pollution allegedly caused by the leakage, the state news agency IRNA reported.
The reports did not say whether production was affected at the Abadan refinery, Iran's oldest and largest.
As MRC informed earlier, an Iranian oil refinery caught fire in the southwestern part of the country, the semi-official Tasnim news agency reported, leaving six people injured. Firefighters on the scene at the Abadan refinery have brought the blaze under control, a local official was quoted as saying by ISNA news agency, adding that the fire would be contained in an hour. The cause of the incident was still unknown, Tasnim said. The damage to the plant at Abadan had no impact on oil exports from Iran, the world’s fifth-biggest exporter, as it is involved in producing gasoline and some other fuels, not the production of crude.
As MRC wrote earlier, Indian refiners, anticipating a lifting of US sanctions, plan to make space for the resumption of Iranian imports by reducing spot crude oil purchases in the second half of the year. The world"s third-largest oil consumer and importer halted imports from Tehran in 2019 after former US President Donald Trump withdrew from a 2015 accord and re-imposed sanctions on the OPEC producer over its disputed nuclear programme.
Ethylene and propylene are the main feedstocks for the production of polyethylene (PE) and polypropylene (PP), respectively.
According to MRC's ScanPlast report, Russia"s estimated PE consumption totalled 576,270 tonnes in the first three month of 2021, up by 4% year on year. Low density polyethylene (LDPE) and high density polyethylene (HDPE) shipments increased. At the same time, PP shipments to the Russian market totalled 410,890 tonnes in January-March 2021, up by 56% year on year. Supply of homopolymer PP and PP block copolymers increased.
MRC