Tartous, Sept. 8 (SANA)Syria’sBanias Refineryis undergoing a major overhaul expected to raise its production capacity by about 50,000 barrels per day, boosting supplies of gasoline, diesel and other petroleum products to the domestic market.

TheSyrian Petroleum Company(SPC) aims to increase the refinery’s capacity from about 80,000 barrels per day to 130,000 barrels per day through maintenance and rehabilitation of key production units and infrastructure.

SPC CEO Youssef Qablawi told SANA during a tour of the facility that the work was progressing ahead of schedule and represented the first comprehensive overhaul of this scale in the refinery’s history.

The project includes replacing a reactor and rehabilitating the distillation units and power station, as well as upgrading buildings, roads, safety systems and other facilities.

Qablawi said the higher capacity would strengthen production of gasoline, diesel, kerosene, liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) and other petroleum products, helping the refinery meet more of the domestic market’s needs.

The refinery’s laboratory will also be upgraded with advanced testing equipment to improve operational and quality-control capabilities, he added.

Tariq Shlash al-Abdullah, SPC executive vice president for refining and chemical industries, said equipment across the refinery’s production units was being dismantled, inspected and assessed, with components replaced where necessary.

Work is focused on atmospheric and vacuum distillation, reforming, hydrotreating and sulfur units, as well as the power station.

Maintenance on the distillation units and power station is expected to be completed within about two months, while work on the reforming unit will require an additional month because its reactor has not been replaced for more than 40 years, Shlash said.

SPC and the Ministry of Energy have also developed a plan to maintain supplies of petroleum products while the overhaul is underway, he added.

The rehabilitation is expected to significantly increase the Banias Refinery’s contribution to domestic fuel supplies and strengthen its role as a key facility in Syria’s oil sector