Iran to boost daily gasoline output by 8 million liters

TEHRAN,March 13(MNA) - Iran will inaugurate a gasoline production unit today, with the projected daily output of 8 million liters, at Shazand refinery. The produced gasoline will meet Euro-5 standards. President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is scheduled to attend the inauguration ceremony. Some 7-8 million liters of furnace oil will be turned into gasoline, liquefied gas, propylene, diesel, and kerosene per day at the Shazand refinery. Currently, some 80,000 barrels of gasoline with octane number of above 95 is produced using furnace oil at the refinery. In October 2012, ISNA quoted National Iranian Oil Production and Distribution Company's managing director Alireza Zeighami as saying that Iran is currently producing 25 million liters of premium gasoline per day, meeting Euro-4 and Euro-5 standards. The country's gasoline output is projected to hit 70 million liters per day by the end of the next Iranian calendar year, he added. According to official government data, Iranian gasoline imports have slumped by as much as 95 per cent over the last four years as rising refinery capacity and lowering fuel subsidies help neutralise Western sanctions aimed at starving Tehran of fuel.