New Iranian refinery’s 1st fuel batch ready

Iran says the first consignment of high-quality gasoline produced from its newly-launched Persian Gulf Start Refinery is ready for nationwide distribution. 

Abbas Kazemi, the managing director of the National Iranian Oil Products Refining and Distribution Company (NIORDC), was quoted by media as saying that the consignment comprised 21 million liters of gasoline.

He said it had been deposited at a key reservoir of the NIORDC in the southern Iranian port city of Bandar Abbas.

Kazemi said Persian Gulf Star Refinery had already produced about 100 million tons of gasoline after over 40 days from its official inauguration on April 30, 2017, adding that the amount had been stored at the internal reservoirs of the refinery.

He emphasized that production of gasoline from condensate – what officials had already described as the first of its kind in the country – had started from the refinery from the very first day, rejecting media speculations that the project was not operational yet.

The official further added that the NIORDC would gradually receive the total volume of gasoline produced at Persian Gulf Star Refinery.

He put Iran’s current gasoline production capacity at around 62 million liters per day, adding that it would reach around 70 million liters within a month.

Kazemi said Iran’s total gasoline production would exceed 100 million liters per day after Persian Gulf Start Refinery would be put in full stream.

Iran inaugurated the first phase of the refinery in late April as a project that the officials said would make the country independent from imports of gasoline after 36 years.

The refinery would produce at least 12 million tons per day of high quality gasoline – technically classified as Euro 4/IV – in the first phase.

Other daily products of the project after completion would include 14 million tons of gas oil, 4 million tons of liquefied petroleum gas, 3 million tons of jet fuel and 130 tons of sulphur.