Speaking at the inauguration ceremony of country's biggest gasoline plant in Shazand, Markazi province on Thursday, the president said that the oil-rich country should reach the point where it would no longer need to export its crude oil.

“We plan to get to the point where we would not need to export crude oil anymore. The number of our oil refineries should double in such a case, and it would be of great benefit to our country,” Ahmadinejad said.

He said opening of Shazand’s Imam Khomeini Refinery shows the self-sufficiency of Iran in oil refinery construction and that the country does not need foreign assistance in this regard.

Ahmadinejad further called on the Iranian oil industry officials to make their utmost efforts to design and build fully indigenous refineries and export their expertise to other countries.

He criticized the West’s illegal unilateral sanctions on Iran's energy and financial sectors, saying that the bans showed “their bullying nature”.

The Iranian president went on to say that refining Iranian crude oil in domestic refineries will generate three to four times more revenue for Tehran than sale of crude.

He added that production of petrochemicals inside the country will also yield five to ten times more earnings than oil exports.

Shazand Imam Khomeini Refinery contains the country’s biggest gasoline production hub with a production capacity of 16 million liters (ml) of gasoline per day. The facility helps increasing production of premium gasoline from the current amount of 1.2 million liters to 3.2 million liters.

Following the gasoline plant's inauguration, its liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) production will increase from 500 tons per day to 2,000 tons.

The treatment facility produces gasoline, liquefied gas, propylene, kerosene, gas oil as well as fuel oil and tar.