TEHRAN, Aug 02 (Shana) -- National Iranian Oil Refining and Distribution Company (NIORDC) Abbas Kazemi expressed satisfaction with the physical progress of Persian Gulf Star Refinery.

Speaking with Shana, the official said the progress of the refinery's completion was satisfactory in the previous year and the first three months of this calendar year.

The refinery is being built by private investors.

He said NIORDC supports the projects and has offered its share of the project.

Phase I of the project is now 90% complete and its petrol output will come online by the end of the current Iranian calendar year to March 2017, Kazemi added.

He further said an investment of �600m has been made to the project from the National Development Fund of Iran.

Besides, Bank Mellat has so far supplied �280m for completion of the project and is expected to offer more funds parallel with the project's progress.

The NIORDC chief also said that the distillation unit of the refinery will also come on-stream by next month.

Persian Gulf Star Gas Condensate Refinery is the first refinery in Iran to be fed by gas condensate and is being developed for treating 360,000 barrels/day of the commodity.

Once completed, the plant will add 35,000 ml/d of Euro-4 gasoline and 14 ml/d of Euro-4 gasoil to the country's output.

The second phase of the project will come online with the production capacity of 24ml/d by September 2016 and the final phase of the project will add another 12ml/d to the refinery's output and will become operational by early 2017.

Fulfillment of the refinery's first phase will bring Iran to self-sufficiency in gasoline production. Iran is now an importer of gasoline.

Iran currently imports 5 ml/d of gasoline to meet its growing demand. The startup of Persian Gulf Star Refinery would let Iran even export 3 to 4 ml/d of gasoline.

By SHANA