PEDEC Managing Director Nasrollah Zarei said trains C and D of the CTEP project at the Azadegan field went into production last December under a presidential order, marking a significant step in boosting crude processing capacity and stabilizing output in the West Karoun region.

Zarei said the company has now completed installation of two new separator units, each weighing 102 tons, with a diameter of 6.8 meters and a length of 33 meters, completing trains A and B. Pre-commissioning operations, equipment testing and process system preparations are underway on schedule to ensure safe, stable operation of these trains, he said.

With trains A and B complete, processing and production capacity at the southern Azadegan field has reached 320,000 barrels per day, Zarei said. He described this as the completion of the project's core phase, with the remaining work — completing the unit that processes and compresses associated gas — being carried out at what he called the country's largest and most complete processing facility.

Asked about the effect of the 12-day war and what he called the third imposed war on the project's timeline, Zarei said development and production operations were not halted and all work continued on schedule. He said only the delivery of a limited number of imported items, including the two separators, which had to be shipped by sea, was delayed, though this had no significant impact on the project's overall progress.

Zarei said the completed phases will further strengthen the Azadegan central processing center's operational capacity, supporting production increases across West Karoun oil fields. Once the southern Azadegan CTEP unit is fully completed, he said, processing and production capacity across the West Karoun fields will reach 820,000 barrels per day — a milestone he called central to completing the country's processing infrastructure and achieving its oil production growth goals in the region.