Baku, Azerbaijan, Jan. 16
By Fatih Karimov - Trend:
Three gasoline production units will come on stream in Iran which will boost the country's euro-4 gasoline production by 10 billion liters, said Shahrokh Khosravani, deputy director of National Iranian Oil Refining and Distribution Company (NIORDC).
The Persian Gulf Star Refinery's gasoline output will rise to 36 million liters, meeting euro-4 standards, he said, Mehr News Agency reported.
The Bandar Abbas refinery's gasoline production unit is 90 percent complete and will come on stream in the next Iranian year (starting on March 21), he added.
The Isfahan refinery's gasoline production unit will also come on stream by the end of the current Iranian year, he noted.
Khosravani said in Nov. that Iran will stop importing gasoline next year.
He added that some 5 million liters of gasoline has been imported on average per day since the beginning of the current year.
Once the gasoline production unit of Isfahan Refinery and the Persian Gulf Star Refinery come on stream, there will be no need to import gasoline, he noted.
The gasoline production unit of Isfahan Refinery will produce four million liters of gasoline per day meeting euro-4 standards, he said.
Iran used to import 40 percent of its needed gasoline by 2009. But, the international sanctions forced it to produce gasoline domestically through adding lead or some poisonous chemical catalysts such as MTBE to the product. MTBE is a highly poisonous substance which causes cancer. It is banned worldwide to be used for gasoline production.
The administration of President Hassan Rouhani ordered to stop the distribution of substandard gasoline. Rouhani has said that the situation has improved in large cities which are being supplied with euro-4 gasoline.
Iranian Oil Minister Bijan Namdar Zanganeh said that once the Persian Gulf Star refinery comes on stream, Iran will be able to produce gasoline conforming to Euro-5 standard.
