The second phase of Iran’s Persian Gulf Star Refinery, known as the world’s largest gas condensate refinery, was launched in a ceremony in the country’s southern port city of Bandar Abbas on Thursday.

President Hassan Rouhani officially launched the refinery’s Phase 2 before touring different parts of the huge facility.

President Hassan Rouhani said on  Thu. that Iran’s Persian Gulf Star Refinery in the southern province of Hormozgan is an “exceptional” project in the region and across the world.

The Iranian president made the remarks at Bandar Abbas Airport on Thursday morning. He arrived  in Hormozgan to inaugurate the second phase of the Persian Gulf Star Refinery, which is the first of its kind to use gas condensate feedstock recovered from South Pars gas field shared by Iran and Qatar in the Persian Gulf.

With the inauguration of this phase, the refinery’s production of Euro-5 gasoline will double, rising from 12 million to 24 million liters a day.   

Once all of its three phases come into operation, the refinery’s daily production capacity will reach 36 million liters a day of Euro-5 gasoline as well as 14 million liters of light and heavy diesel, 3 million liters of jet fuel, more than 4 million liters of gas condensates, 130 tons of solid sulfur, and 425 tons of hydrogen.

Developed by Khatam al-Anbia Construction Base, a conglomerate affiliated with the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC), the refinery’s first phase was launched in April 2017.

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

The third and final phase of the project is expected to come on stream by the end of the current Iranian year (March 2019).