Baku, Azerbaijan, Dec. 14
By Umid Niayesh - Trend:
Iran is not expected to become self-sufficient in gasoline production in the next two years, spokesman for Iranian Parliament Energy Commission, Hossein Amiri Khamkani said.
The spokesman said that the county is forecasted to reach self-sufficiency in gasoline production by the end of Iranian fiscal year of 1395(March 21, 2017), the Islamic Republic's YJC news agency reported Dec. 14.
Once the Persian Gulf Star refinery's gasoline production unit, as well as other refinery development projects come on stream, the country would achieve self-sufficiency, Amiri Khamkani said, underlining that it also depends on controlling gasoline consumption by people.
Iran's gasoline consumption currently is around 70 million liters per day, meanwhile, the country produces 62 million liters of gasoline daily.
The country currently only imports Euro-4 gasoline.
Earlier Shahrokh Khosravani, deputy director of National Iranian Oil Refining and Distribution Company (NIORDC) said that once the Persian Gulf Star refinery's gasoline production unit comes on stream, the country's total production capacity will reach 96 million liters per day.
"Then Iran will be able to export the surplus gasoline which is around 20 million liters per day," he noted.
Iran's private sector will be permitted for the first time to import and sell gasoline to the country, according to the next year's (to start on March 21, 2015) draft budget which is under review in parliament.
The private sector can import and sell the mentioned products, however, the market regulation will continue to remain under the responsibility of the oil ministry, according to the draft budget.
Iran used to import 40 percent of its needed gasoline by 2009. But the international sanctions forced it to produce gasoline domestically by 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.
Umid Niayesh is Trend Agency's staff journalist, follow him on Twitter: @UmidNiayesh