Iran to stop gasoline imports as of next year

Almaty. November 15. Silkroadnews – In 2017 Iran plans to stop gasoline imports for the first time in 36 years, Managing Director of National Iranian Oil Refining And Distribution Company (NIORDC) Abbas Kazemi said.

“Regarding the refining projects on stream, this year will be final year of offloading gasoline in Iranian ports and as of next year, the import of such a strategic and high demand products’ import will be stopped”, Iranian media quoted A. Kazemi saying.

He added, the next year budget does not provide for expenditures for gasoline imports.

According to A. Kazemi, at the beginning of the year the volume of imports amounted to 10-12 million liters of gasoline a day, but now has lowered to 4.5-5 million liters a day.

He added, however, in the future Iran plans to launch several refining projects. In particular, two oil refineries – in Bandar Abbas and Laban – are planned to start operation by the end of the year (Iranian calendar, ending March 20, 2017). Also, the first phase of another major refinery – Persian Gulf Star Refinery, whose capacity is 36 million liters of gasoline per day, is expected to start operation at the same time.