Azerbaijan, Baku, Feb.6 / Trend F.Mehdi/
Iran will inaugurate the Persian Gulf Star refinery next spring which will produce gasoline using gas condensates, IRNA quoted Ebrahim Aqaei, an official with the company as saying.
The construction of the refinery has progressed 62 per cent, he said adding that it will add 12 million litres to the country's daily gasoline output which currently stands at 50-55 million litres.
Some 3.6 billion euros will be invested in the project, he noted. The refinery will also produce 14 million litres of diesel fuel, four million litres of LPG and three million litres of jet fuel.
On January 25,the IRNA quoted deputy oil minister Alireza Zeighami as saying that seven oil refining projects are underway in Iran, with the goal of boosting gasoline production capacity to 110 million litres per day.
The projects will be inaugurated to their maximum by the end of the first half of the next Iranian calendar year (September 21, 2013), he added.
Projects include Arak, Lavan, Tabriz, Esfahan, Bandar Abbas, Tehran, and Persian Gulf Star refineries.
Iranian refiners have been obliged to supply gasoline meeting Euro-4 standards since the beginning of the next Iranian calendar year (March 21, 2013), the Mehr News Agency quoted Iranian Standards Organisation's Deputy Director Bahador Kazemi as saying on January 12.
The produced gasoline currently meets Euro-2 standards, he said adding that newly established refineries are able to produce gasoline which meets both Euro-4 and Euro-5 standards.
Iran exported over 132,000 tons of gasoline worth around $134 million last year.
According to Customs Administration data, gasoline exports rose by 127 per cent in value and 108.5 per cent in volume, respectively, compared to the year before.
Armenia, Afghanistan, the UAE, Iraq and Oman were the destinations for Iranian gasoline.
In December 2012, IRNA quoted Ali-Mohammad Sha'eri, the Iranian environment protection department's deputy director as saying that some 50 million litres of gasoline and diesel meeting Euro-4 and Euro-5 standards will be produced in Iran by the end of the current Iranian calendar year. The amount of fuel will be produced by Shazand, Tondgouyan, Abadan, and Lavan refineries, he added.
In October 2012, ISNA quoted Zeighami as saying that Iran is currently producing 25 million litres of premium gasoline per day meeting Euro-4 and Euro-5 standards.
The country's gasoline output is projected to hit 70 million litres per day by the end of the next Iranian calendar year, he added.
He also said that diesel oil output will reach 95 million litres per day by the end of the current Iranian year of which 25 million litres meet the Euro-4 and Euro-5 standards.