Abadan

Iranian oil port in Khuzestan province, situated on an island on the east side of the Shatt-al-Arab waterway at the head of the Gulf, 675 km/420 mi southwest of Tehran; population (2006) 219,800. Abadan is the chief refinery and shipping centre for Iran's oil industry, nationalized in 1951. This measure was the beginning of the worldwide movement by oil-producing countries to assume control of profits from their own resources. By 1980 over 18 million tonnes of crude oil were being processed annually. Oil installations were badly damaged during the Iran–Iraq war (1980–88), but considerable reconstruction has taken place since, largely on nearby Kharg Island.