Three projects are being implemented, one in Isfahan and two others south of the country, with the aim of increasing the domestic gasoline production capacity by 10 million liters a day, deputy managing director of the National Iranian Oil Refining and Distribution Company said Friday, Mehr news agency reported.
"Gasoline produced from these refineries will meet Euro-4 standard," Shahrokh Khosravani stated, adding that the machinery has already been installed for one of the gasoline production projects at Isfahan refinery.
"The catalyst needed for gasoline production is being supplied to the isomerization unit of Isfahan refinery," the NIORDC official added, noting that the catalyst was first planned to be imported but the sanctions imposed by the West on Iran over its nuclear energy program has resulted in a shortage of catalysts that are the main material for gasoline production process.
Catalytic reforming is a chemical process used to convert petroleum refinery naphthas distilled from crude oil (typically having low octane ratings) into high-octane liquid products called reformates, which are premium blending stocks for high-octane gasoline.
"The design and production of catalyst for Isfahan refinery is now being carried out by an Iranian chemist," Khosravani noted, adding that Isfahan refinery will start producing quality gasoline before the end of this year (March 20).
The preliminary work on gasoline production units is also underway at the Persian Gulf Star refinery and the Bandar Abbas oil refinery south of the country.
Construction of the Persian Gulf Star refinery is now 75 percent complete.
The refinery was initially planned to come on stream last year (March 2014). Khosravani said that once the Persian Gulf Star gasoline production unit comes on stream, Iran's total gasoline output will reach 96 million liters per day. Once fully operational, it will have the capacity to produce 36 million liters of Euro 4-compliant gasoline per day. The unit will also produce 14 million liters of diesel oil on daily basis. Some $1.5 billion is required to complete the project.
Khosravani had earlier said that the first phase of the Persian Gulf Star refinery (with the capacity to produce 12 million liters of gasoline per day) will come on stream by the end of the next Iranian calendar year (March 2016).
The project consists of three phases, each with the capacity of producing 120,000 barrels of condensates.
Regarding the Bandar Abbas oil refinery, Khosravani stated that the project to produce gasoline at this refinery and improve quality of other oil products is more than 90 percent complete.
