TEHRAN- Daily production of gasoline in Iran has increased by 18 million liters during the three-month period started from the beginning of current Iranian calendar year (March 21) compared to the same period of time in the past year, according to the managing director of National Iranian Oil Products Distribution Company (NIOPDC).

Alireza Sadeqabadi said some refineries were under overhaul operation during the mentioned time span and the operations were conducted in a short time and at a low cost without any accident which was a unique job, IRIB reported on Wednesday.

“Despite all shortages we managed to fulfill our commitment of the daily production of 78 million liters”, the official underlined.

“We will hopefully increase our gasoline production in the next three months when the refineries will come out of the overhaul”, he said.

Iran’s daily gasoline production was 15 million liters in the past Iranian calendar year (ended on March 20), according to Oil Minister Bijan Namdar Zanganeh.

Zanganeh has also announced that Iran will have no gasoline import since the second half of the current calendar year (starting on September 23).

In mid-December last year, the minister had said that Iran will reach a stable status in gasoline production once the second phase of Persian Gulf Star Refinery comes on stream.

The refinery in the southern province of Hormozgan is the first of its kind designed based on gas condensate feedstock.

Planned to have a total crude oil processing capacity of 360,000 barrels per day, Persian Gulf Star is projected to be complete by the end of the current Iranian calendar year (March 20, 2019).

Once fully operational, the refinery will add over 36 million liters of Euro-4 and Euro-5 quality gasoline to the country’s gasoline production capacity to increase it to 100 million liters per day.

MA/MA