Speaking on the sidelines of a ceremony to strike an agreement between the National Iranian Oil Refining and Distribution Company (NIORDC) and the Iranian Mines & Mining Industries Development & Renovation, known as IMIDRO, on Monday, Zangeneh said the agreement was aimed at construction of coke plants in Imam Khomeini and Bandar Abbas refineries by IMIDRO in cooperation with the Research Institute of Petroleum Industry (RIPI).

Bandar Abbas Refinery will produce 620,000 tons/year of needle coke which is two times the demand of Iran's aluminium industry. 

The coke is used in steel and aluminum industries. Once operational, the units will render Iran’s self-sufficient in importing the items.

The units will be fed by fuel oil to produce highly value-added items including petcoke.

The projects is expected to take 3 years to complete and will be built with a billion dollars of investment to be provided by preselling the items, the refineries and some banks.

The National Iranian Oil Refining and Distribution Company (NIORDC) and Iranian Mines & Mining Industries Development & Renovation, known as IMIDRO, have signed an agreement for production of sponge and needle coke in Bandar Abbas and Imam Khomeini refineries which will render Iran self-sufficient in production of the items used for steel production.

A ceremony was held in Tehran on Monday to strike the deal in the presence of Iranian Minister of Petroleum Bijan Zangeneh and Alireza Sadiqabadi, the NIORDC CEO, Reza Rahmani, the Iranian Minister Industry, Mine and Trade, Khodada Gharibpour, IMIDRO chairman, as well as the heads of the two refineries.

By signing this agreement, the Research Institute of Petroleum Industry (RIPI) will cooperate with IMIDRO to launch a coke production unit in the two refineries and the needle and sponge coke required by the steel industry of the country will be produced from low-sulfur fuel oil domestically.

The pilot plant of the unit will be built at RIPI, and with the signing of this memorandum, industrial-scale coke units will be contracted in the refineries afterwards.

This agreement is of great strategic value for Iran given the US sanctions imposed on import of petcoke to Iran.

There are at least four basic types of petroleum coke, namely, needle coke, honeycomb coke, sponge coke and shot coke. Different types of petroleum coke have different microstructures due to differences in operating variables and nature of feedstock. Significant differences are also to be observed in the properties of the different types of coke, particularly ash and volatile matter contents.