Iran plans to invest between EUR17 billion-EUR18 billion in its downstream oil sector until 2012 to upgrade existing refineries and build new ones, an Iranian oil executive said Wednesday.
Speaking to reporters at the World National Oil Companies congress in London, Mohammad Reza Nematzadeh, managing director of state-owned National Iranian Oil Refining & Distribution Company, said the investments would revamp Iran's nine existing facilities and construct five new plants.
The refineries would help Iran wean itself off oil product imports, he said. Despite being a major oil exporter, the country last year imported 16 million liters of gasoline a day and 10 million liters of gasoil a day.
Iran also aims to remove domestic subsidies from gasoline and gasoil by 2012, Nematzadeh.
Retail gasoline prices in Iran are currently around $0.40 a gallon.