Tehran, July 26: Iran is investing 46 billion dollars in building new oil refineries and upgrading its existing facilities, Deputy Oil Minister Alireza Zeighami said in a report posted on the ministry's website.
The official said more than half of this investment, around 26 billion dollars, is solely for building new refineries by the end of the current development plan to 2014, the website shana.ir reported on Sunday.
Of the 26 billion dollars, about 8.5 billion dollars has already been disbursed, the report said.
Iran, the second largest oil exporter in OPEC, relies heavily on imports for petroleum products, especially gasoline due to inadequate refining capacity. It imports nearly 40 percent of its annual gasoline needs.
The United States and European Union are specifically targeting the oil sector in sanctions they are imposing on Iran, on top of measures imposed by the UN Security Council over its controversial nuclear programme.
On Monday, EU foreign ministers were meeting in Brussels to slap the tough sanctions on Iran's oil sector in a bid to coax Tehran back to nuclear negotiations.
To counter these sanctions, Iran is investing two billion dollars in facilities specifically being built to produce gasoline, the report said.
Zeighami said Iran proposes to invest nearly 18 billion dollars in maintaining and optimising the production capacities of existing refineries. A significant portion of this has already been invested.
Most of Iran's existing refineries were built by US companies before the 1979 Islamic revolution and refurbishment has been hampered by trade sanctions enforced over the past 30 years.