China Eximbank provides $1.818 billion loan for Phase 2 of Abadan Refinery Upgrade Project (Linked to Project ID#85280)

On December 27, 2017, China Petroleum & Chemical Corporation (Sinopec Ltd.) signed an EPC contract worth approximately $2.139 billion (RMB 14 billion) for Phase 2 of the Abadan Refinery Upgrade Project. China Eximbank subsequently agreed to provide a loan to finance 85% of the cost ($1.818 billion) of the EPC contract. The Abadan refinery (Persian: پالایشگاه آبادان‎) is an oil refinery located in the city of Abadan near the coast of the Persian Gulf. Phase 2 of the Abadan Refinery Upgrade Project involves building atmospheric and vacuum units, as well as gasoline, diesel and kerosene distillation units, a sulfur unit and a catalytic cracking unit. Abadan, with 400,000 b/d nameplate capacity, aims to stabilize its throughput at 360,000 barrels per day. It ultimately expects, following the four-phase upgrade program, to reduce fuel oil output by 40%. Phase 2 commenced in February 2017, and as of May 2019, it had achieved a 33% completion rate. It was expected to reach a 65% completion rate by the end of 2019. However, in mid-2020, the project was temporarily suspended due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The project is expected to be completed in 2022. China Eximbank also financed Phase 1 of the Abadan Refinery Upgrade Project (see Project ID#85280).

Additional details

1. The Chinese project title is 伊朗Abadan炼厂产品升级项目 or 伊朗Abadan煉廠產品升級項目二期. The Persian project title is فاز دوم پالایشگاه آبادان or پالایشگاه آبادان‎ or فاز دوم پالایشگاه آبادان . 2. The China Eximbank loan that supported this project is not included in the Overseas Development Finance Dataset that Boston University’s Global Development Policy Center published in December 2020. 3. For the time being, AidData assumes that the loan commitment year was the year (2018) following the signing of the December 2017 EPC contract. 4. Given that China Eximbank agreed to provide a loan to finance 85% of the cost ($1.818 billion) of the EPC contract, AidData assumes that the loan was issued in the form of a buyer's credit. This issue warrants further investigation.

Number of official sources

6

Number of total sources

19