Tehran, Iran, June 20
By Mehdi Sepahvand - Trend:
Technological development is underway to reach the ability to produce Euro-5 gasoline at small refineries, director of the small refineries project of Iran's Oil Industry Research Center Javid Roiyaei said.
Roiyaei pointed out that the Iranian government has put top on agenda the construction of small refineries.
The reason for adopting that policy is the regional developments of recent years as well as the introduction of crude hydrocarbon products to the stock market, he noted, SHANA news agency reported June 20.
Regular refineries are highly complicated in structure and they take a lot of money to construct which is usually out of the range of capabilities of the private sector, he said, adding that the allocation of crude oil as feed to refineries is another issue that further complicates the building of large refineries.
"Sixty percent of gas condensates create naphtha which is the basic material for producing gasoline. These gas condensates leave no distillation column remnant which will make the structure of the refinery very simple and reduces the costs drastically, which is one of the main features of small refineries with that feed," Roiyaei said.
Iran needs to import around 10 million liters of gasoline daily to meet its domestic demands.
The country imports only the gasoline conforming to Euro-4 standard, as import of Euro-2 gasoline has been banned.
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 Iranian fiscal year (ending March 20).
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