Tehran, Iran, April 13
By Milad Fashtami - Trend:
Iran plans to import daily 10 million liters of gasoline to compensate for stopping production of gasoline in petrochemical complexes, managing director of National Iranian Oil Refining and Distribution Company (NIORDC), Abbas Kazemi, said on April 13.
"Iranian government has ordered the petrochemical complexes to stop producing gasoline," he said, adding that the country's gasoline imports were around 3.5 million liters per day in the previous calendar year, which ended on March 20.
Kazemi went on to note that Iran's gasoline consumed was around 60 million liters per day in the last months of the previous year.
"We will do our best to maintain the figure," he explained.
According to the oil ministry, Iran's petrochemical complexes will not produce gasoline and octane booster anymore.
The decision was made because the gasoline produced in petrochemical complexes has been reported as polluting.
Iranian petrochemical complexes started producing gasoline once the United States put gasoline trades with Iran under sanction.
Head of Iran's Department of Environment, Massoumeh Ebtekar, said on February 9 that the gasoline produced in petrochemical complexes is highly polluting.
Last year, according to PSI (Pollutant Standards Index), Iran had 147 days during which air quality was substandard. Two years ago, this number stood at 217 days.
The air over Iran's capital, Tehran, is among the most polluted in the world. Experts say many Iranians suffer serious health problems as a result.
Iran's gasoline consumption surpassed 100 million liters per day on April 1, marking an all-time high record, Iranian Mehr News Agency reported.
The country's gasoline consumption stood at 100.7 million liters per day on the mentioned day, which was unprecedented.
According to the managing director of National Iranian Oil Products Distribution Company (NIOPDC), Mostafa Kashkouli, some 24.5 billion liters of gasoline was consumed in Iran in the previous year, which is 1.8 billion liters more than its preceding year.
The country's average gasoline consumption stood at 67 million liters in the previous year.
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