Speaking with reporters on the sidelines of a cabinet meeting on Wednesday, he further said that the projects, upstream and downstream, were among the demands that late president, Ibrahim Raisi, insisted on their implementation.

The minister of petroleum said gathering associated gases, dismantling gas flares, raising petrochemical complexes’ production capacity, especially complementary industries, oil products conveyance pipelines construction and enforcing clean air law were among the main demands of Ayatollah Raisi from the petroleum ministry.

“When these projects come online, it could be said that the 13th administration has managed to achieve great successes in implementing not only rising production of oil, gas and oil products projects, but implementation of downstream projects amid building petro-refineries and prevention of selling raw materials.”, Owji told the reporters.   

As a person who has been involved in oil industry activities for 35 years, I can tell that we have managed to achieve desirable results in those issues that the late president was insisting on, the minister added.  

Elsewhere in his remarks, Owji said: we are just a few weeks away from opening 23 macro projects including petrochemical projects that will increase the production capacity of petrochemical products by 3 million tons, Owji said.

While right now oil products conveyance is carried out by tanker trucks, by exploitation of a 460-kilomneter pipeline in coming weeks, oil products transfer through pipeline will replace tanker trucks with huge advantages, according to the minister.

During the late president visit to Northeast Azerbaijan province, he was set to inaugurate a number of oil products boosting qualification projects at Tabriz oil refinery as well as an oil product transfer pipeline, length of 222 kilometers, from Tabriz to Khoi and Oromyyeh which can remove between 5 to 6 thousand tanker trucks from roads, reducing air pollution and road accidents as well, Owji said.

A natural gas transfer pipeline, boosting gas pressure stations and collecting 4 million cubic meters of gas flares are the other projects that will come online in near future, he concluded.