Abadan [key], city, Khuzestan prov., SW Iran, on Abadan Island, in the delta of the Shatt al Arab, at the head of the Persian Gulf. It is the terminus of major oil pipelines and is an important oil refining and shipping center. Abadan Island was ceded to Iran by Turkey in 1847. Abadan city was an unimportant village until the discovery (1908) of nearby oil fields. Its oil refinery (commissioned 1913) was the largest in the world by the 1970s. The refinery, together with the rest of the city, was destroyed during the Iran-Iraq War in the 1980s. After the war's end in 1988, Abadan resumed oil production, but on a smaller scale.
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