Tabriz Refinery to Produce Quality Diesel

Tabriz Refinery in the northwestern province of East Azarbaijan plans to launch a unit for the production of ultra-low-sulfur diesel (ULSD) in the coming months, the refinery’s managing director said on Saturday.

“With the aim of lowering the environmental footprint of the fuel, Tabriz Oil Refinery is developing a scheme, worth €100 million ($112 million), to produce ULSD, which conforms to Euro-4 emission standards,” Gholamreza Bagheri was quoted as saying by ILNA.

ULSD is a cleaner-burning diesel fuel that contains more than 90% less sulfur than regular diesel. Since 2006, almost all of the petroleum-based diesel fuel available in Europe and North America has been of a ULSD type.

The refinery has also improved its gasoline output to Euro-4 standards at a cost of €265 million ($296 million). The measure is seen as an important step to reduce air pollution in the city, one of the country's metropolises, Bagheri added.

The official stressed that as mazut is a heavy, low quality fuel that harms the environment, the refinery’s total mazut output is being exported.

Iran’s mazut target destinations mainly include China, Singapore and some other Asian states, which use the fuel as feedstock in the power plants. Domestic refineries have reportedly been tasked with reducing their mazut production to 10%.

Bagheri said that Tabriz Refinery has succeeded in cutting annual water evaporation within its facilities by 50% to 40 million cubic meters a year.