Halting Selling Raw Is A Top Priority, President

Iran’s oil industry planning on its resources and capabilities should be in a way that not only put an end to selling crude oil but to make an important part of its revenues through exporting technical and engineering services.

Iranian president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad made above remarks in ceremonies were held for inauguration of a new gasoline making unit at Shahid Tondgouyan (Tehran) oil refinery adding oil industry experts are the most dedicated persons in Iran’s industry and their services are unprecedented in Iran’s oil industry.

In the hardest moments of the country, oil industry staff has not allowed the industry to be bogged down in the crisis, the president said.

Stating that the process of nationalization of oil industry has yet to be completed, the official said the most benefits resulting from oil go to the exploiters’ pockets.

He said unfortunately oil prices are being determined based on political and not economic factors adding if oil prices to be based on economic factors it would climb further in comparison with other precious commodities.

Exploitation of other countries and imposing high levies on consumers are the main reasons why the price of oil is fixed based on political reasons, the president said adding the same is true in refining and distribution sector on the one hand and designing and engineering sector on the other hand, where 14 to 15 percent of money goes to the pockets of investors.

Nationalization process is completed when all oil revenues go to Iranian people’s pockets and fortunately, dedicated forces of oil industry are engaged in completing the rings of oil industry by joining them together.

Elsewhere in his remarks, Ahmadinejad said: Up to the end of fifth five-year development plan oil production capacity will rise by one million barrels per day adding refining, distribution and petrochemicals capacity should be increased in accordance with it.

Foreign countries invested one billion dollars in iran’s oil industry each year and took 14 to 19 percent interest while the figure stood at 2 to 3 percent in international transactions, Ahmadinejad said.

Shahid Tondgouyan oil refinery is the first development plan all its phases from designing to construction have been done by Iranians, the president noted.

2.8 million liters per day gasoline making unit of Shahid Tondgouyan (Tehran) oil refinery came online today in the presence of Iranian president.

According to Shana, the gasoline-making unit is the second project after commissioning a similar one at Arak oil refinery that includes an isomerization unit being built by Iranian experts.

Isomerization unit of the gasoline-making project is made up of a gravitational molecular sieve system that separates low octane gasoline and returns it to the first line for more processing so the number of octane in produced gasoline goes up considerably.

The project aims to improve the quality of gasoline produced in the refinery and to raise the number of its octane from 64 to 88.

The gasoline making project consist of a light naphtha processing unit and an isomerization unit each with processing capacity of 18 thousand barrels per day, plus some accessories such as a unit of production nitrogen gas with one thousand normal cubic meters of gas per hour capacity and two new storage tanks each with 80 thousand barrels capacity.

Tehran Oil Refining Company consists of two oil refineries, the first one, Southern oil refinery, was launched in 1969 while the second one, Northern oil refinery, came online in 1973.

The nameplate capacity and operational capacity of Shahid Tondgouyan oil refinery are estimated at 220 and 242 thousand barrels per day. Ahwaz/Asmari, Maroon/Shadegan and Central Asain countries crude oils are the main intakes of the facility.