Oil Minister Bijan Namdar Zanganeh, in a statement issued this week, has assigned the National Iranian Oil Refining and Distribution Company with the project to build the fourth phase of Persian Gulf Star Refinery in the southern Hormozgan Province.
The prospective phase is envisaged to produce 12 million liters of Euro-5 gasoline and diesel, ISNA reported.
PGSR, which describes itself as the Middle East's largest refinery, is built in three phases. Each phase is designed to produce 12 ml/d of high-octane gasoline and diesel, as part of efforts to wean Iran away from the fuels' import.
Reportedly, the first two phases are currently active and the third has partially gone on stream, putting the refinery's daily output at 27.5 million liters.
Iran's gasoline output barely exceeds 90 ml/d, but upon completion, the refinery will raise the volume above 100 ml/d. It will also help increase the share of gasoline complying with Euro standards.
Moreover, each PGSR phase uses about 120,000 barrels per day of gas condensate, supplied from the giant South Pars Gas Field in the Persian Gulf. With the fourth phase added to it, the refinery will consume some 500,000 bpd of the fuel, as a strategic move to use the field's gas domestically instead of exporting it.
The world's largest gas field in Iran's territory with its Qatari extension, South Pars is being developed in 24 phases and except for Phase 11 that has not been developed yet, other phases such as 13, 22, 23 and 24 will become operational by the end of 2019.
The field's gas condensate output currently exceeds 800,000 bpd, which will reach 1 million barrels per day upon the completion of all phases.
Amid the current tensions created by the US reimpostion of sanctions on Iran's petroleum sector and hesitations by the country's oil and gas buyers, PGSR can be of great help to make use of the hydrocarbon material instead of shipping it to foreign markets.
