Bandar Abbas – The managing director of National Iranian Oil Products Distribution Company (NIOPDC) said the second phase of Persian Gulf Star Refinery (PGSR), which is hailed as the Middle East’s largest gas condensate processing complex, is due be inaugurated officially in less than a month.

Speaking in a press conference in the city of Bandar Abbas in southern Hormozgan Province, Alireza Sadeqabadi said the mechanical completion of the mega-refinery’s second development phase was finished in late Iranian calendar year of 1396 (ended on March 20) and it will be officially inaugurated by President Rouhani before Ramadan which would be less than a month.

PGSR’s gasoline output

According to Sadeqabadi, who is also a deputy at the oil ministry, the refinery’s capacity for production of Euro-5 quality gasoline which stood at 12 million liters per day (mlpd) in the first phase will reach 24 mlpd after launching the second phase and further to 36 mlpd when the third phases goes operational.

“This will effectively cut the country’s gasoline imports and turn Iran into an exporter of the product,” deputy oil minister said.

Since inauguration, along with Euro-5 quality production, PGSR also accounts for 11 mlpd of the country’s total 32 mlpd of Euro-4 gasoline production capacity.

NIOPDC has put it on the agenda to reach an average daily production of 28 million liters per day for both Euro-5 and Euro-4 quality gasoline by the end of the current Iranian calendar year (March 20, 2019).

The country’s total gasoline production capacity will increase to 100 million liters per day by the mentioned date.

Sadeqabadi further noted that during the current fiscal year, the country’s gasoil production capacity is going to increase 28 million liters, of which eight million liters will be supplied from PGSR, when the refinery’s second development phase goes on stream, and another four million liters will be added after the third phase is operational.

Financing of project

Asked by the Tehran Times about the mega-projects’ financing resources, the deputy minister explained that no foreign fund has been used in this project and PGSR is fully financed by domestic and governmental sources.

“A €260-million fund has been recently approved by President Rouhani to be injected into the project, of which €120 million is going to be funded by National Development Fund of Iran (NDF) and the rest comes from the refinery’s incomes,” Sadeqabadi said.

“We have no problem regarding the project’s financing,” he added.

Impact of new U.S. sanctions

Elsewhere in his remarks, Sadeqabadi mentioned the potential effect of U.S. posing new sanctions on the country saying all the project’s equipment and machinery has been already purchased and mostly installed, so in case of new sanctions there would be no impact on the project’s progress.

“The project is due to be completed by the end of the current Iranian calendar year and hopefully everything will go smoothly on schedule,” he added.

Construction of the refinery started in 2006, but the project faced some hurdles due to financial constraints resulting from West-imposed sanctions on the country’s oil industry.

Based in the southern province of Hormozgan, the mega-refinery is the first of its kind designed based on gas condensate feedstock.

PGSR is planned to have a total crude oil processing capacity of 360,000 barrels per day.

Photo Caption: Managing Director of National Iranian Oil Products Distribution Company Alireza Sadeqabadi (3rd L) and Managing Director of Persian Gulf Star Oil Company Mohammad-Ali Dadvar (1st L) in a press conference at the place of Persian Gulf Star Refinery on Saturday