Azerbaijan, Baku, Feb.10/ Trend F.Milad
Iran will inaugurate 4 giant gasoline production units in 40 days, Deputy Oil Minister Alireza Zeiqami said on Sunday.
Once the projects come on stream, the nation's gasoline production capacity will reach 75 million liters per day, the Mehr News Agency quoted Zeighami as saying.
The mentioned projects are located in Arak, Abadan, Isfahan and Tabriz.
Iran started selling gasoline conforming to Euro-4 and Euro-5 standards in eight major cities last week.
The move is a part of Iran's efforts to reduce air pollution. Motor vehicles account for 70 percent of air pollution in the Iranian capital city. Tehran says all carmakers would be obliged to manufacture cars meeting Euro-4 and Euro-5 standards.
Iran currently produces 14 million liters per day of gasoline conforming to Euro-4 and Euro-5. The amount would reach 22 million once the RFCC unit of Shazand oil refinery comes on stream.
The Managing Director of Lavan Oil Refinery Company (LORC) Mohammad-Ali Dadvar said last month that Iran will double its gasoline production capacity at Persian Gulf refineries by the end of the current Iranian calendar year (March 20).
The refineries' produced gasoline meets Euro-5 standard, he said.
Iranian Standards Organization's Deputy Director Bahador Kazemi also said earlier this month that 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 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.
In December 2012, IRNA quoted Ali-Mohammad Sha'eri, the Iranian environment protection department's deputy director, as saying that some 50 million liters 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.