Azerbaijan, Baku, Dec.10 / Trend A.Yusifzade /
"Currently, our petrochemical plants are producing the domestic gasoline. But gasoline produced by the petrochemical plants has been recently reduced because of a high level of inventories and maximum crude gasoline used by the oil refineries to produce oil products," Iranian Oil Minister Dr. Masoud Mirkazemi said during his visit to Markazi Province accompanying Dr. Mahmoud Ahmadinejad during the third round of provincial tours, Shana reported.
He said that Iranian petrochemical plants produce 98-100 octane number gasoline with much better quality than imported one.
Visiting Imam Khomaini Refinery in Shazand, the oil minister expressed satisfaction with the progress of the project and the efforts exerted by its personnel to launch the project in the nearest future.
Shazand oil refinery's gasoline production capacity will rise up to 16 million liters per day next year, Mirkazemi said.
He called upgrading the refinery's oil products as the other target of the project noting that the project plays a big role in meeting the country's needs for oil products.
Mirkazemi stipulated that launching the development plan means hitting another blow to the failed imposed sanctions against the country.
Speaking on the sidelines of the meeting with the speaker of Indonesia's Regional Representative Council Irman Gusman, Dr. Mirkazemi said that Iran's gasoline production capacity would rise by at least 10 million liters a day by new oil refineries' launching development plans before the end of current Iranian calendar year on March 21, 2011.
