Managing Director of the National Iranian Oil Refining and Distribution Company (NIORDC) Alireza Zeighami says the domestic gasoline consumption has been increased significantly in country during the recent months. He believes if the usage trend continues at this rate, Iran will need to import quality gasoline from other countries.
“In past month, Iranians consumed some 100 million liters of gasoline per day. This shows a 10% increase in compare to the statistics of last year. Currently local refineries produce around 60 million liters of gasoline on daily basis, but this number cannot respond to the high amount of domestic consumption.” Deputy oil minister Alireza Zeighami said on Wednesday.
According to Alireza Zeighami, Iran’s Oil Ministry is working on some projects in order to increase daily production to 70 million liters per day. “Our projects are still going in several cities across the country including Mashhad, Isfahan, Tabriz and Lavan. The production capacity of refineries will be increased by 17% until the end of year.”
Zeighami asked people to decrease their daily consumption of gasoline. Iran’s refineries cannot increase their gasoline productions immediately, because Iran is currently producing and exporting other petrochemical products.
Base on estimations, the consumption of gasoline will be increased in Iran during the coming months. Most people utilize their own vehicles for traveling in summer. It’s worth mentioning that the price of gasoline in Iran is $0.12 per liter which is 92% lower than the average world price of gasoline.