Baku, Azerbaijan, Dec. 11
By Farhad Daneshvar – Trend:
Iran, a net importer of gasoline, not only appears determined to become self-sufficient in the fuel production in a not-so-distant future but the Middle Eastern nation is also on its way to become an international exporter.
“Once the second phase of the Persian Gulf Star oil refinery begins operating, our situation in the production of gasoline will become stable,” Oil Minister Bijan Namdar Zanganeh told reporters on Saturday.
According to Iranian oil officials, the launch of the new phase of the Persian Gulf Star facility at the southern port city of Bandar Abbas by the end of the current fiscal year (starting March 20) would help the Islamic Republic to fully meet its gasoline needs and export on a global scale.
Back in April the OPEC member that currently imports about 13 million liters of gasoline per day saw the launch of the first phase of the Persian Gulf Star refinery.
Fuel requirements
Iran’s domestic consumption rose eight percent to 81 million liters a day over the first eight months of the fiscal 2016/17 compared with the same period in the previous year.
This is while the average daily output of Iran’s gasoline over the first eight months of the current fiscal year stood at 74.4 million liters, eight percent up compared to the same time last year.
In the meantime, the output of the country’s Euro 4 gasoline reached 25.824 million litters, an increase of 16 percent year on year.
The production level of the ordinary gasoline saw a growth of four percent to hit 48.791 million liters per day.
Persian Gulf Star
The country’s second largest refinery after Abadan facility upon completion with a projected processing capacity of 360,000 barrels a day is projected to cover the gap between production and consumption.
The facility is expected to produce 36 million liters of gasoline, 14 million liters of diesel and 370,000 liters of aviation fuel on a daily basis.
Iran in order to fully benefit from the refinery had planned to complete the facility in three phases, each of which has a processing capacity of 120,000 barrels a day.
Iranian policymakers have pinned hopes in Persian Gulf Star to turn into an exporter of gasoline as the first phase of the refinery has already been inaugurated and the second as well as third phases of the project are expected to come on stream over the next months.
The full operation of the Persian Gulf Star Refinery will add 36 million litters to the country’s daily gasoline output, enabling it to produce 110.4 million liters per day.