Iran to open world's largest refining unit

IRAN: Iran's deputy oil minister has announced that despite the illegal US-led sanctions against Tehran, the Islamic Republic will soon inaugurate the world's largest oil refining unit with the capacity of purifying over 90, 000 barrels of oil per day.

Alireza Zeighami said on Sunday that the refining capacity of the Residual Fluid Catalytic Cracking (RFCC) unit of Shazand Imam Khomeini Refinery in central Iran is twice that of the world's biggest RFCC unit.

The world's largest RFCC unit has the refining capacity of 45,000 barrels of oil per day, while the refining capacity of Imam Khomeini Refinery's RFCC unit is 90-95 thousand barrels a day, said Zeighami, who is also head of the National Iranian Oil Refining and Distribution Company (NIORDC).

"The US, the European Union and Zionists (Israelis) will soon witness the outcome of [anti-Iran] sanctions with the launch of the country's largest RFCC refining unit."

The United States, Israel and some of their allies accuse Iran of pursuing non-civilian objectives in its nuclear energy program with Washington and the European Union using this false claim to impose illegal unilateral sanctions against the Islamic Republic.

At the beginning of 2012, the US and the European Union imposed new sanctions on Iran's oil and financial sectors with the goal of preventing other countries from purchasing Iranian oil and conducting transactions with the Central Bank of Iran. On February 6, the US Treasury Department also announced new sanctions targeting Iranian oil revenues. Iran refutes the nuclear allegations and argues that as a signatory to the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) and a member of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), it is entitled to develop nuclear technology for peaceful purposes.

PRESS TV