Baku, Azerbaijan, Jan. 31
By Fatih Karimov- Trend:
Iran exported five million liters of diesel per day during the ten-month period from March 21, 2015, Naser Sajjadi, the managing director of National Iranian Oil Products Distribution Company (NIOPDC) said.
Sajjadi said that Iran exports diesel to neighboring countries including Pakistan and Afghanistan, the oil ministry's official SHANA news agency reported Jan. 31.
Iran used to feed its power plants with diesel and fuel oil but later replaced them with gas, which caused the country to save liquid fuel, including diesel.
The National Iranian Gas Company (NIGC) is planning to increase the level of delivered gas to power plants by seven cubic meters, which means the country's consumption of liquid fuel will drop by the same figure.
Iran stopped diesel imports in 1998, but then became a net diesel importer in 2005 until early 2015. The country's diesel bunkering also reached 215,000 tons in 2013.
Sajjadi further said that Iran imported some 8.5 million liters of gasoline per day averagely during the ten-month period (March 20, 2015-Jan. 20, 2016).
The imported gasoline is equal to 12 percent of country's total consumption, he said, adding Iranians consume 71 million liters of gasoline per day averagely.
The country's gasoline output is currently some 64 million liters, requiring the country to import enough to meet domestic requirements. To date, the Islamic Republic only imports Euro-4 gasoline.