Iran Boosts Daily Gasoline Production by 4 Million Liters

Source: Fars News Agency; photos by ISNA

Iran's daily gasoline production capacity increased by 4 million liters after a development project at Shazand (Imam Khomeini) oil refinery came on stream during a ceremony attended by President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

Extension of the giant refinery in Arak, Central Iran, has now more than doubled the output.

Development of units 12 and 33 of Shazand development projects boosted gasoline production at the refinery from 4mln to 8.3mln liters per day.

"We have almost reached self-sufficiency in designing and engineering of refineries and oil facilities," Ahmadinejad said during his visit to Shazand.

National Iranian Oil Refining And Distribution Company (NIORDC) Managing-Director Alireza Zeiqami had announced on Monday that the country's gasoline production capacity will rise by 16 million barrels per day up to the end of current Iranian calendar year (20 March 2012).

In 2010 the European Union banned sales of gasoline to Iran, which used to import 30 to 40 percent of its needs. Since then Tehran has pushed ahead to expand capacity.

The world's fifth-biggest crude oil exporter has long depended on imported gasoline for 30 to 40 percent of its consumption, but now has become a net exporter.

In April, the National Iranian Oil Engineering and Construction Company (NIOEC) announced that Iran was set to increase its gasoline output by more than four times, from the current 42 million liters (11.09 million gallons) per day to 186 million liters (49.1 million gallons) per day in a five-year period.

Also earlier in April, Iran's former Oil Minister Massoud Mir-Kazzemi announced that the country planned to boost its daily gasoline output by 22 million liters this year.

Speaking to reporters on the sidelines of a ceremony to inaugurate the first phase of the development plan of Lavan oil refinery in the Persian Gulf, the former minister also said that Iran plans to improve the quality of its gasoline production in order to get Euro-4 and Euro-5 standards in the near future.

Mir-Kazzemi had announced in February that the country is prepared to export gasoline to the neighboring countries due to the excessive production of Iranian oil refineries.

Iran is by now ready to export gasoline to the neighboring countries, Mir-Kazzemi said, and reiterated that Iran is now self-sufficient in gasoline production.

Iran increased its gasoline production after the United States and the European Union started approving their own unilateral sanctions against the Islamic Republic over its nuclear program, mostly targeting the country's energy and banking sectors, including a US boycott of gasoline supplies to Iran.

After the UN Security Council ratified a sanctions resolution against Iran on June 9, the US Senate passed a legislation to expand sanctions on foreign companies that invest in Iran's energy sector and those foreign companies that sell refined petroleum to Iran or help develop its refining capacity.

The bill, which later received the approval of the House of Representatives, said companies that continue to sell gasoline and other refined oil products to Iran would be banned from receiving Energy Department contracts to deliver crude to the US Strategic Petroleum Reserve. The bill was then signed into law by US President Barack Obama.

But Iran's self-sufficiency in gasoline production made Washington's plots fall flat. Iran boosted gasoline production so much that in September 2010, the country exported its first gasoline consignment to the foreign markets.

... Payvand News - 11/18/11 ... --