Iran's refineries' gasoline production will be increased up to 55 million liters per day (lpd) by the end of current Iranian calendar year (March 20, 2011), the managing director of the National Iranian Oil Products Refining and Distribution Company said here on Saturday.
The Islamic Republic of Iran News Network quoted Ali-Reza Zeighami as saying that "the development plans of Shazand, Abadan, and Tehran Refineries will come on stream in February."
Zeighami reported in August that Iran has allocated $2.2 billion for seven gasoline production and refinery renovation projects.
Currently the projects are 70 percent complete on the average.
"Once the projects come on stream, 12 million liters of gasoline would be added to the country's production capacity and 70 percent of the nation's demand for the product will be met domestically," Zeighami explained.
"Two billion dollars of the mentioned amount will be allocated to Tehran, Abadan, Esfahan, Tabriz, Bandar Abbas, Imam Khomeini and Lavan gasoline production refineries," he said. "The rest of the funds ($200 million) will be spent specially to speed up the completion of ongoing projects," he added.
Iran currently produces 45 million liters of gasoline per day.
Iran exported its first domestically produced gasoline to Iraq in September.
Iranian Oil Minister Masoud Mirkazemi announced in September that the country reached self-sufficiency after increasing its gasoline production to 66.5 million liters and no longer needed to import 20 million liters of its 64-million-liter daily consumption.
He later said Iran had stopped placing orders for gasoline purchase from abroad after increasing its domestic production.
Eventually Iran stopped the export of petrochemical products following the implementation of a crash program to boost gasoline production in domestic petrochemical units.
The managing director of the National Iranian Oil Products Refining and Distribution Company, Zeighami said on August 29 Iran is about to take-off on producing a target 191 million liters of gasoline a day by the end of the Fifth Development Plan (2015).
He added that if the gasoline rationing plan was not implemented the consumption figure would increase between 100 to 120 million liters a day.
Under the rationing scheme introduced in 2007, a motorist can buy 60 liters of subsidized fuel per month for just 1,000 rials per liter (around $0.11). Beyond that amount they have to pay a "semi-subsidized" price of 4,000 rials