TEHRAN – The head of Iranian Gas Engineering and Development Company (IGEDC) has said the country’s first gas refinery with a fully Iranian-made control system is going to go operational early next year (starts in late March), IRNA reported.

Referring to the latest developments of the country's gas industry in manufacturing high-tech equipment, Reza Noshadi said: “The first refinery equipped with an all-Iranian control system will be launched in the spring of 1403.”

According to the official, the sanctions and the U.S. pressures have not been able to stop Iranian experts from achieving great success in the oil and gas industry and the country is excelling in many areas.

Noshadi considered the export of technical engineering services as a way to resolve the country's foreign currency restrictions and stated: “Before entering the international arena, however, we must seek to define and implement an efficient solution to curb excessive consumption.”

Last week, Iran’s Deputy Oil Minister Jalil Salari said the country has succeeded in manufacturing 80 percent of the oil and gas industry’s parts and equipment domestically despite being under sanctions.

The Iranian Oil Ministry has focused on taking advantage of the expertise and technical know-how of knowledge-based companies, Salari said, emphasizing that more than 80 percent of the oil and gas industry equipment is manufactured in the country.

Speaking in a meeting held in Abadan on reviewing the quality plans of oil byproducts, he said that the oil ministry took effective steps in the past two years for the domestic production of parts and equipment.

One of these measures is related to the launch of extraterritorial refining plans overseas and the export of technical and engineering services, he stated.

So far, three- to four technical know-hows have fully been localized in refining companies in the field of producing catalysts, compressor manufacturing, and streamlining the quality of fuel oil, the chief executive of the National Iranian Oil Refining and Distribution Company (NIORDC) said.

He put the oil production capacity at Abadan Oil Refinery (AOR) at 500,000 barrels of oil per day (bpd).

With the increase in the capacity and quality of oil byproducts, the country’s gasoline production capacity has reached 129 million liters/day, Salari highlighted.

He went on to say that the export of oil and oil byproducts in first the nine months of the current Iranian calendar year (March 21 to December 22, 2023) registered a 4.5 percent growth compared to the same period last year.

EF/