Baku, Azerbaijan, Jan. 21
By Umid Niayesh - Trend:
Tabriz refinery (located in the north western province of East Azerbaijan) has produced over 124 million liters of gasoline conforming to Euro-4 standard in the first nine months of the current Iranian fiscal year (March 21 - Dec. 22, 2014).
The refinery produced about 902.54 million liters of gasoline in total during the 9-month period, Mohammad Bagher Dakhili, managing director of Tabriz oil refining company said, the oil ministry's official SHANA news agency reported Jan. 21.
The refinery also produced 69,648 metric tons of LPG, 259.9 million liters of kerosene as well as 1.639 billion liters of diesel oil during the period, Dakhili said.
About 11,000 metric tons of sulfur also produced in the unit, he added.
The official said that Tabriz refinery is the only facility in the country which removes air pollutant benzene from the gasoline.
In the 9-month period the refinery has extracted over 9,396 metric tons of benzene from the produced gasoline, Dakhili said.
Iran needs to import around 10 million liters of gasoline daily to meet its domestic demands.
The country currently imports only the gasoline conforming to Euro-4 standard, as import of Euro-2 gasoline has been banned.
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.
Former Managing Director of the National Iranian Oil Products Distribution Company (NIOPDC) Mostafa Kashkouli previously said that Iran's gasoline consumption will reach 74 million liters per day in the current year.
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