Iran's oil minister said the Islamic republic plans to almost double refining capacity to 3.3 million barrels a day, the oil ministry's official Shana news Web site reports Sunday.
"Iran's refining capacity figure currently stands at 1.7 million barrels per day and by implementation of seven new refineries, this amount would be raised to 3.3 million barrels per day," Shana cites, Oil Minister Gholam Hossein Nozari as saying.
Nozari didn't say by when the plans would be implemented.
Nozari said Iran's refining capacity before the country's 1979 revolution was roughly 800,000 barrels a day and the country had also raised its petrochemical production capacity since, according to Shana.
"Before the revolution Iran's yearly petrochemical production capacity was about 4.5 million tons while this amount has risen to 35.5 million tons now," Nozari said, reports Shana.