Baku, Azerbaijan, Dec. 9
By Fatih Karimov - Trend: Some 16 million liters of euro-4 gasoline are distributed in Iran 's big cities per day.
Nasser Sajjadi, Managing Director of National Iranian Oil Products Distribution Company, said euro-4 gasoline is sold in the big cities of Tehran, Karaj, Arak, Isfahan, Tabriz, and Mashhad, Iran's Shana news agency reported on Dec. 9.
Currently, 10 million liters of euro-4 gasoline is distributed in Tehran, 2 million liters is distributed in Isfahan, 1.2 million liters is distributed in Karaj , 1 million liters is distributed in Arak , 1.2 million liters is distributed in Mashhad, and 750,000 liters is distributed Tabriz , he said.
Iran will stop importing gasoline next year (will start on March 21, 2015), Shahrokh Khosravani, deputy director of National Iranian Oil Refining and Distribution Company (NIORDC) said on Nov. 26.
Khosravani added that some 5 million liters of gasoline have 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, adding that the first phase of the Persian Gulf Star Refinery is projected to come on stream next year.
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 that causes cancer. It is banned worldwide in the use for gasoline production.
The administration of President Hassan Rouhani ordered a stop to the distribution of substandard gasoline. Rouhani has said that the situation has improved in large cities that are being supplied with euro-4 gasoline.