Iran will be an exporter of gasoline by the middle of 2017, an Iranian energy official told Tasnim news agency on Saturday.

Iran will end importing gasoline once the first phase of the Persian Gulf Star oil refinery comes on stream later this year, said Abbas Kazemi, managing director of the National Iranian Oil Refining and Distribution Company (NIORDC).

The refinery complex, together with the other development plans in the oil and refining industry, will make Iran an exporter of gasoline, sometime in the middle of 2017, Kazemi said.

Once completed, the output of the Persian Gulf Star refinery, in the southern port city of Bandar Abbas, will stand at around 360,000 barrels per day, according to reports.

Around three billion U.S. dollars has been poured in the project, and an extra 500 million dollars is needed for its completion, Iranian Oil Minister Bijan Namdar Zanganehin said in March.