SHANA - Iranian President Hassan Rouhani said the country�s total gasoline production capacity had increased by at least 45% since he took office in 2013, while Euro-4 and 5 gasoline production had increased 13-fold over the five years.

Addressing a ceremony to officially launch phase II of Bandar Abbas Gas Condensate Refinery (Persian Gulf Star Refinery) on Thursday in the southern province of Hormuzgan, Dr. Rouhani said the boost had been made possible by the efforts of all the workers, engineers and designers who sweated in such hot air.

Referring to the 12 to 13-fold increase in Euro-4 and 5 production capacity in the country over the past 5 years, he said: �Should we not be proud of this? We were an importer of gasoline and now we are an exporter; we imported gas in the winter, but now we are an exporter; are these not something to be proud of? Should we not be proud of exploiting new phases of South Pars or the phases of the Persian Gulf Star Refinery?�

Phase I of the refinery came online in April 2017 with 12 million liters per day of gasoline production capacity.

The Iranian President further expressed optimism that the third and last phase of the project comes online by the end of the current Iranian calendar year to March 20, 2019.

Once fully operational, the refinery will have a processing capacity of roughly 360,000 barrels of gas condensate a day.

The facility is owned by Oil, Gas and Petrochemical Investment Company (49%), Oil Industry Pension Fund (33.1%) and National Iranian Oil Refining and Distribution Company (NIORDC) (17.9%).

The project is estimated to be completed at a cost of approximately $3.4bn.

The first shipment of gasoline produced at Phase I was delivered for distribution in June 2017. The remaining two phases are scheduled to be commissioned soon.

The refinery is being developed for production of high-quality gasoline in order to make Iran self-sufficient in gasoline production.

It will also enable the nation to export gasoline and other high-value products to foreign countries.