Abadan, city in southwestern Iran, located in Khuzestan (Khuzistan) Province. Abadan occupies the northwestern part of Abadan Island, a narrow island about 29 km (about 18 mi) long, in the Shatt al Arab River. The city is located opposite the Iranian port city of Khorramshahr. The Iraqi border is nearby, on the west bank of the Shatt al Arab. Petroleum has been central to Abadan's economy since the early 1900s, when oil deposits were discovered in the region. The city is a major petroleum-refining and petroleum-shipping center. Crude oil is pumped to the refinery from oil fields to the north. Abadan has an international airport. A branch campus of the Petroleum Institute of Technology, centered in Teheran, is located in the city.
In the 8th century Abadan was founded by and named for Abbad, a member of the Abbasid dynasty . Under the Abbasids, Abadan developed as a successful port city on the Persian Gulf. However, by the 1900s, silt deposits laid by the Shatt al Arab River had distanced the city from the Persian Gulf by nearly 50 km (30 mi). In the early 20th century, rich oil fields were discovered in the province of Khuzestan. The city of Abadan was constructed initially as a company town by the Anglo-Persian Oil Company (renamed the Anglo-Iranian Oil Company in 1935 and The British Petroleum Company PLC in 1954). Abadan served as a place of residence for the workers at the oil refinery, which was built on the island between 1909 and 1913. Eventually the refinery expanded to become one of the largest in the world. Meanwhile, the city's population grew rapidly, increasing from about 115,000 in the 1940s to more than 230,000 by the early 1960s.
