Iran starts selling Euro-4 standard diesel oil

Iran has started selling diesel oil that conforms to the Euro-4 standard in the capital Tehran, as well as in some other major cities, Deputy Head of the National Iranian Oil Products Distribution Company Jalil Salari said on Monday.

Although Iran is currently capable of producing high-quality diesel oil, there is no diesel oil-consuming sedan in country's market," the Mehr News Agency quoted Salari as saying.

Iran's daily consumption of diesel oil currently stands at 50 million liters, he said.

Iran also started selling gasoline conforming to Euro-4 and Euro-5 standards in eight major cities on Sunday.

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. Tehran says all carmakers would be obliged to manufacture cars meeting Euro-4 and Euro-5 standards.

Iran currently produces 14 million liters of gasoline per day that conforms to Euro-4 and 5. The amount would reach 22 million once the RFCC unit of Shazand oil refinery comes on stream, the Mehr News Agency reported.

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 that meets Euro-5 standard, he said.

Iranian Standards Organization's Deputy Director Bahador Kazemi also said earlier this month that Iranian refiners will be obliged to supply gasoline meeting Euro-4 standards as of the beginning of the next Iranian calendar year (March 21, 2013).

Gasoline currently being produced 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 Environmental 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 the Shazand, Tondgouyan, Abadan, and Lavan refineries, he added.

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.



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