Azerbaijan, Baku, Jun.19/ Trend F.Karimov/
Five European companies have announced readiness to participate in the implementation of an oil project in Iran despite sanctions of the West against the country's oil sector, the Mehr News Agency quoted Iranian oil official Rashid Seyedian as saying.
Two years ago, the companies have not dome their obligations regarding the development of Shazand Oil Refinery in Iran, but they have newly voiced readiness to participate in the project, the official said.
In the absence of the European companies, Iranian experts managed to proceed with the development project of the refinery successfully. But, the European companies have called on joining the project recently, Seyedian added.
In March, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad inaugurated the last unit of the Shazand petrochemical plant aimed at producing eight million litres of gasoline per day.
The refining capacity at Shazand plant has been raised from 170,000 bpd to 250, 000 bpd. The daily gasoline production capacity rose to 12 million litres.
The Iranian government says the produced gasoline in the newly commissioned unit is based on Euro-4 and Euro-5 standards.
Iran started building three new phases of Shanzad petrochemical plant in 2006 and has spent 43 trillion rials ($3.5 billion based on the official USD rate in Iran).
Iran says the new gasoline production unit with eight million litres of gasoline output per day has been built completely domestically.
Iran knows the way to circumvent new U.S. sanctions on the country's petrochemical industry, the Tasnim News Agency quoted the head of the association of Iranian oil, gas, and petrochemical exporters, Hassan Khosrojerdi as saying.
The U.S. is trying to launch a psychological war against the country, he said.