A specialized working group has been established to assess the quality of gasoline, amid concerns over substandard fuel supplies which have triggered severe air pollution in major cities along with health problems.
The Supreme Council of Standards (SCS), as an ancillary body of the Institute of Standards and Industrial Research of Iran (ISIRI), has handed over its responsibility of setting out standards for gasoline to the committee, head of the ISIRI, Nayyereh Pirouzbakht, announced, IRIB reported.
The committee is comprised of ISIRI members, the oil ministry, and the administrative deputy of the Presidency. It will assess laws and regulations related to gasoline production in addition to ensuring their enforcement. Pronouncements made by the committee amount to that of the SCS.
In total, 27 dictums were ratified by the SCS last year, part of which are now handed over to the committee. The committee's first session will be held in late April.
The ISIRI is investigating prerequisites to join the International Laboratory Accreditation Cooperation (ILAC) and the International Accreditation Forum (IAF) given the international recognition of the standards established therein.
Iran plans to turn to high-quality and standardized gasoline to tackle air pollution, which has put at risk close to 35 million Iranians. The air in Tehran and Ahwaz is amongst the most polluted in the world.
Low quality gasoline and diesel are by and large responsible for the problem. So far, several meetings have been held between officials of the Department of Environment (DoE) and the oil ministry in this regard. The oil ministry has taken steps to reduce the distribution of low-quality gasoline and increase supply of the superior Euro-4 gasoline.
Nonetheless, since 2010 when punitive western economic sanctions started, among other things, imports of gasoline began to bite. Faced with possible fuel shortages, Tehran quickly made up for the loss of imports by producing its own gasoline.
While the emergency fuel kept vehicles running, experts warned that it was creating much more pollution. Based on Tehran’s Air Quality Control reports the amount of carcinogens in domestically-produced gasoline was twice to thrice the amount permitted by the Euro-4 standard.
Emission standards define the acceptable limits for exhaust fumes of new vehicles. The European emission standards are defined in a series of European Union directives staging the progressive introduction of increasingly stringent standards.
Euro-4 Gasoline Supplies
Euro-4 gasoline will be supplied in Abadan and Ahvaz once Abadan Refinery's processing unit goes into operation in mid May, Saeid Mahjoubi, production coordination & supervision director at the National Iranian Oil Refining & Distribution Company (NIORDC) announced on Saturday. The unit is to produce three million liters of Euro-4 gasoline per day, but the figure is expected to increase in due course.
Abadan refinery's Sulfur recovery unit (SRU), which has been operating on a pilot basis since April 6, will go on stream concurrent with the processing unit. The two units are part of the third phase of the refinery's development plan, which is currently being implemented.
Development of Abadan Refinery, to be conducted in three phases, is aimed at stabilizing the refining capacity of the complex, reducing the number of environmental pollutants, boosting oil, gas, and gasoline production in conformity with Euro-5 standards, lowering production of mazut and decommissioning of the dilapidated infrastructure.
Abadan Refinery, one of the biggest in the world with a production capacity of 400,000 oil barrels a day, is located in Abadan near the Persian Gulf coasts. It operates as a subsidiary of NIORDC, producing and processing different oil byproducts including LPG, naphtha petrochemical feed, gasoline, kerosene, jet fuel, gas oil, light fuel oil, lube-cut oil, bitumen and sulfur.
