TEHRAN – With the nation’s refineries’ development plans scheduled to become completed by the end of Iran’s Fourth Five-Year Socioeconomic Development Plan (2004-2009), the crude oil refining capacity will grow from the present 1,600,000 barrels per day (bpd) to 2,500,000 bpd.

As a result of the measures, gasoline production in the country is expected to increase from the current 40 million liters per day to 150 million litters per day.

The Persian service of IRNA on Tuesday gave an account of some of the major projects to that end. No precise dates have been given for the projects’ commencement, however.

The construction of a gas condensates refinery in the port city of Bandar Abbas, located in southwest Iran, with an input capacity of 360,000 bpd of gas condensates plus 32 million litters of gasoline per day, is another underway project.

A new refinery will be built in Abadan, Khuzestan Province, with an input capacity of 160,000 barrels of super heavy crude oil and is scheduled to produce over eight million litters of gasoline per day.

Boosting Arak Refinery’s capacity from the 150,000 bpd at present to 250,000 bpd will need some $2,500 million of investment in hard currency.

Improvement works on a number of other refineries -Shiraz, Tehran and Isfahan - are among other projects aimed at the expansion of their capacities that would lead to a significant boost in their gasoline outputs. RA/