Once Iran's gasoline imports were targeted by the West, all looks were shifted toward a company which had made an utmost effort to develop its refinery projects by securing financial sources. But the waves of sanction hardly hit the local plans as no time remained to finance refinery projects and raise the local output.
The West powers have planned these sanctions on the pretext that the Islamic Republic's nuclear program is meant for producing weapons. Tehran firmly rejects the allegation stressing that the program is aimed at peaceful purposes including producing electricity. Under their influence the U.N. Security Council has already placed four rounds of embargos on Tehran for refusing to freeze its uranium enrichment program.
The situation led Iranian oil officials to set a crash project for producing gasoline in petrochemical plants on the agenda. Finally through controlling the local consumption and improving production in some development projects, National Iranian Oil Refining and Distribution Company (NIORDC) could provide gasoline without being dependent on petrochemical plants.
Perhaps for this reason, Zeighami as Deputy Oil Minister in refining and distribution affairs began his interview with a brief explanation on the prime reason which helped Iran to become self-sufficient in producing gasoline within a short period.
What is your program for developing the refineries of the country and boosting production capacity in the new Iranian year [1390, began on March 21]?
We have five key plans for boosting gasoline output capacity in the country hoping to implement them and start producing on the due time. They include: a project for raising the output level through the optimization of Arak Oil Refinery (to increase the feeding level by 80,000 barrels a day); to make operational the gasoline production unit of Martyr Tondgouyan Oil Refinary in Tehran; to execute a plan for raising the production capacity and optimizition in Lavan Refinery and to make the gasoline production plan in Tabriz operational. We ought to implement all these plans in 1390.
Once they become operational, how much these plans would add to the level of gasoline production in the country?
Based on our program, we are to produce 52.5 million liters of gasoline per day. Of course it is limited to ordinary gas with octane rating of 87. At the same time we try to produce 1.7 million liters of high-octane gasoline a day. However I should stress that such production capacity is in line with the executing subsidy reform plan and consumption control in the country. Even if demand for gasoline is increased, it could not be impossible to meet such demand, but the level of consumption is currently in accord with our prediction.
What about the plans which are being implemented in the other countries?
We have finished the first rounds of negotiations for constructing refineries in Syria and Indonesia. Moreover, we are constructing two oil pipelines extended from Iran to Iraq, and from Iran to Armenia. We hope that all these plans will become operational in the current year.
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