Presidential election debates around Iranian refinery
Iran inaugurated the first phase of the Persian Gulf Star Refinery last week. The project consists of three phases, with 120,000 barrels per day (b/d) of oil processing capacity each one. Recently, Seyyed Ebrahim Raeisi, the Iranian President Hassan Rouhani’s major rival in upcoming elections, said the refinery should have become fully operational in 2014 and the delay cost billions of dollars to Iran. He claimed that the refinery was completed by 70.4 percent when Rouhani took office in mid-2013. Oil Ministry released a report Apr. 4, saying the progress in the project in mid-2013 was only 47.9 percent. The ministry accused Raeisi’s advisors of giving him false information. "Raeisi’s advisors were in ex-president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s administration and they should clarify why the project started in 2007 and was completed by less than half in 2013," the Oil Ministry said. Why Iran started the project? Iran started construction of the refinery in 2007, after UN Sec