Production of Euro-4 standard gasoline in Kermanshah Refinery, which was due in 2016, has been postponed to 2019, managing director of Kermanshah Oil Refining Company told ISNA.
Currently quality of petroleum products, including gasoline, refined at Kermanshah Refinery conforms to Euro-2 standards, Seyed Mohammad Jamshidi said, noting that the gasoline currently produced in the majority of nine refineries operating across the country matches Euro-2 standards.
Nationwide plans to enhance the quality of refined products were initially expected to be implemented by 2016. However, they are now rescheduled. Quality enhancement plans for petroleum products are primarily aimed at improving gasoline (due to its benzene components) and gasoil (due to sulfur components). “Domestically produced gasoline is of low quality,” Jamshidi asserted. Iran plans to turn to high-quality gasoline to tackle air pollution, which has put at risk close to 35 million Iranians.
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. The oil ministry has taken steps to reduce the distribution of low-quality gasoline and increase supply of Euro-4 gasoline. A cabinet approval last year urged the oil ministry to distribute Euro-4 gasoline in 8 big cities, including Tehran, Isfahan, Shiraz, Mashhad, Karaj, Qom and Tabriz.
