Baku, Azerbaijan, May 17
By Fatih Karimov - Trend:
Iran will export gasoline the next year once the gasoline production unit of the Persian Gulf Star Refinery comes on stream.
Iran's Oil Minister Bijan Namdar Zanganeh said that once the Persian Gulf Star Refinery's gasoline production unit comes on stream, the country will no longer need to import gasoline, Iran's ILNA news agency reported on May 17.
The facility will come on stream next Iranian calendar year, which starts on March 21, 2015.
"Once the refinery comes on stream, the country's gasoline output will rise to 34 million liters per day. So, we can meet the domestic need and export about 15 million liters of gasoline per day," he said. "As we are planning to import premium gasoline as well, we may export a portion of the domestically produced gasoline, which is lower in terms of quality."
On May 11, the managing director of National Iranian Oil Refining and Distribution Company (NIORDC), Abbas Kazemi, said Iran currently imports 5.5 million liters of gasoline per day.
He added that the average figure was around 3.5 million liters previous year, Iran's Tasnim News Agency reported.
"If the country's consumption rises, we need to import more gasoline," he explained.
According to the managing director of the National Iranian Oil Products Distribution Company (NIOPDC), Mostafa Kashkouli, some 24.5 billion liters of gasoline was consumed in Iran in the previous year, which is 1.8 billion liters more than its preceding year.
The country's average gasoline consumption stood at 67 million liters in the previous year.