TEHRAN -- Iran will open Middle East’s largest oil refinery, the Shazand in the next few days.

The project will come on stream at the cost of $3.5 billion in the central Iranian city of Arak, the Islamic Republic of Iran News Network reported.
Abadan oil refinery’s gasoline production unit will also be inaugurated in the next few days.
The unit was completed at the cost of one billion dollars and would add over one million barrels to the country’s daily gasoline production capacity.
Once the first phase of the Shazand oil refinery’s development plan come on stream, some 2 million barrels per day would be added to the country’s gasoline production capacity, while by completion of the remaining phases of the refinery, the nation’s gasoline production capacity would be raised by 16 million barrels per day.
The new development plans for the oil refinery industry are focused on reduction of sulfur and other pollutants in order to get Euro-5 standard in production of petrol for cars, Press TV reported.
The Euro-5 is one of the European emission standards which define the acceptable limits for exhaust emissions of automobiles. The emission standards are defined in a series of European Union directives staging the progressive introduction of increasingly stringent standards.
Another significant plan is the production of the Propane, also known as Propylene, which is a waste product created when crude oil is refined into gasoline, diesel fuel and other products.
In December, the National Iranian Oil Products Distribution Company Managing Director Farid Ameri said that Iran will increase its fuel storage capacity by 5 billion barrels to reach over 16.7 billion liters.
The current storage capacity of oil products in the country is around 11.5 billion liters, but it will reach 16.7 billion liters by the end of the Fifth Five Year Development Plan (2010-2015), he added.