Iran set to launch world’s biggest gasoline plant

Iran President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is poised to inaugurate the world’s largest gasoline plant with an output of 8 million liters (ml) per day of premium gasoline near the central city of Shazand on Thursday.

The operation of the Residual Fluid Catalytic Cracking (RFCC) unit of Imam Khomeini Refinery will make Iran fully self-sufficient in gasoline production and will further expand the country’s basket of refined oil products.

Rashid Seyyedian, the RFCC unit director, said on Wednesday that the Reduced-Crude Desulphurization (RCD) unit of the refinery, which will supply feedstock for the RFCC unit, has already come online.

He noted that Iranian engineers and technicians have carried out all the necessary tests in the absence of foreign companies.

Seyyedian stated that the gasoline produced in this refinery will meet Euro-5 standards.

Shazand Refinery is the first treatment facility converting fuel oil to high-octane gasoline in the Middle East.

Seyyedian noted that the refinery’s liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) production will reach 2,000 tons per day from 500 tons and its Euro-5 gasoline output will soar to 9 ml a day. Moreover, he added, the facility will be producing 6 ml a day of kerosene while its fuel oil production would fall from 6 to 2.4 ml a day.

The treatment facility produces gasoline, liquefied gas, propylene, kerosene, gas oil as well as fuel oil and tar.

The refinery has been renovated through investment of USD3.3 billion by the National Iranian Oil Engineering and Construction Company (NIOEC).

Iran attained self-sufficiency in fuel production after its international suppliers stopped selling gasoline to Tehran under US pressure.