Star Refinery’s Gasoline Unit Ready by March

The gasoline production unit of the Persian Gulf Star Refinery in the southern Hormozgan Province will go on stream by March 2017, the end of the current  fiscal year, Ebadollah Abdollahi, head of Khatam-Al-Anbiya Construction Headquarters said.

“The refinery’s total production capacity of gasoline is set at 360,000 barrels per day,” he told a news conference on Sunday, IRNA.

Khatam Al-Anbiya, which is the contractor of the Persian Gulf Star Refinery, is the largest industrial contractor in Iran. The company, established during the Iran-Iraq war in the 1980’s to help rebuild the country, has over the years diversified into a mechanical, engineering, energy, mining and defense sectors.

“Last month, the Star Refinery began producing 10 million liters per day of naphtha and diesel,” Abdollahi added.

Located in the port city of Bandar Abbas, the long-awaited key refinery will produce 12 million liters of Euro-4 compliant gasoline per day and 360,000 barrels per day of condensates after the refinery’s first phase becomes operational. According to plans, the refinery’s products are expected to be sold domestically due to their high quality and other refineries’ output will be exported. Completion of the project has been delayed several times due to a lack of funds.

International sanctions adversely affected the development of the project, but the refinery gained fresh impetus following the easing of oil, economic, banking and trade restrictions in January.