World's largest gasoline production unit to be inaugurated in Iran

The Shazand oil refinery's RFCC gasoline prediction unit will officially come on stream in near future.

Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad will inaugurate the project, the Mehr News Agency reported.

The project will come on stream at a cost of 3.5 billion dollars.

By implementing the project, the refinery's gasoline output would be increased to 16 million litres from the previous figure of four million litres.

Iranian Oil Minister Rostam Qasemi said on September 21 that Iran will boost its gasoline production capacity by 10 million litres in the near future.

Once the third development phase of the Abadan Oil Refinery, the LAvan refinery's gasoline production unit, and the RFCC unit of the Shazand Refinery come on stream, the country's clean gasoline output, which meets Euro-4 and Euro-5 standards, will reach 25 million liters, from the current figure of 12 million.

Iran will start selling gasoline conforming to Euro-4 standard in 8 cities from February.

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.

The Managing Director of Lavan Oil Refinery Company (LORC) Mohammad-Ali Dadvar said last week 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.

In October 2012, ISNA quoted National Iranian Oil Production and Distribution Company's managing director Alireza Zeighami as saying that Iran is currently producing 25 million liters of premium gasoline per day, meeting euro-4 and euro-5 standards.

The country's gasoline output is projected to hit 70 million liters per day by the end of the next Iranian calendar year, he added.

According to official government data, Iranian gasoline imports have slumped by as much as 95 per cent over the last four years as rising refinery capacity and lowering fuel subsidies help neutralise Western sanctions aimed at starving Tehran of fuel.



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