Azerbaijan, Baku, July.21/ Trend R.Zamanov/
Tabriz refinery's gasoline production unit will come on stream next month, the Iranian Oil Minister Rostam Qasemi said on Sunday.
Once the project comes on stream, the country's Euro-4-conforming gasoline production capacity would reach 23 million liters per day, the ISNA News Agency quoted Qasemi as saying.
Tabriz refinery's gasoline production capacity currently stands at 2.6 million liters and by inauguration of the new unit the figure would reach 3.6 million liters.
Qasemi said last week that Iran will become a gasoline-exporter state by the end of the next Iranian calendar year (March 20, 2015).
Deputy oil minister Alireza Zeyqami said in March that once the gasoline production units of Lavan, Abadan, and Tabriz refineries come on stream, the country's gasoline production capacity would surpass Iran's consumption rate so we can stop production gasoline in the petrochemical complexes.
Zeyqami went on to note that Iran's production capacity currently stands at 61 million tons per day.
Iran sits on the world's second largest natural gas reserves after Russia and is trying to grow its gas production by increasing foreign and domestic investments, especially in its South Pars gas field.
Iran's total in-place oil reserves have been estimated to be more than 560 billion barrels, with about 140 billion barrels of recoverable oil. Moreover, heavy and extra-heavy varieties of crude oil account for roughly 70-100 billion barrels of the total reserves.