TEHRAN – The Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), in its Annual Statistical Bulletin 2022, has put Iran’s daily refining capacity in 2021 at 2.202 million barrels, indicating 1,000 barrels per day (bpd) increase compared to 2020.

Iran's refining capacity has increased by more than 480,000 bpd from 2011 to 2021, according to OPEC's Annual Statistical Bulletin. Iran's refining capacity in 2011 was reported to be 1.715 million bpd.

Despite all the external challenges like the coronavirus pandemic and the U.S. sanctions, the Iranian oil and gas sector has been developing at a fast pace and the country is passing new milestones in this industry every day.

Various sectors of Iran’s oil and gas industry including exploration, production, processing, and distribution are all among the world’s top charts and the country is taking new steps to develop the industry even further.

Among different sectors of this industry, refining is a major one being seriously paid attention for development.

Back in September 2021, Oil Minister Javad Oji had said that the country’s oil refining capacity will be increased by 1.5 folds by the end of the current government’s incumbency (in four years).

He mentioned promoting the quantity and quality of the current refineries’ products and the construction of new refineries as some major plans of the Oil Ministry in the new government.

According to the defined schedule for the quantitative and qualitative development of existing refineries and planning for the construction of new refineries in the next four to five years, the country's daily oil refining capacity will increase by one and a half times to 3.5 million barrels, the minister stated.

“Following the improvement of the quality of petroleum products and the increase of the quality of gasoline and gas oil, which is very important for us in the field of environment, the discussion of quantitative and qualitative development plans of refineries is seriously on the agenda of the current government”, he added.

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