Baku, Azerbaijan, April 16
By Fatih Karimov - Trend:
The gasoline that is being imported into Iran is highly pollutant, according to Iran's Tasnim news agency.
The agency reported on April 16 that the four elements in gasoline (benzene, sulfur, aromatic, and olefin) - have a pollution level above standard.
The standard amounts of the four elements should be: 2 percent, 40 PPM, 35 percent, and 18 percent, respectively.
Investigation revealed that the the amounts of benzene, sulfur, aromatic and olefin in one of the consignments were 3 percent, 150 PPM, 45 percent, and 20 percent, respectively.
Benzene and sulfur in the other consignment were 8 percent and 500 PPM.
Iranian government has never announced the source of imported gasoline, but Chinese state-trader Zhuhai Zhenrong Corp, which was sanctioned by Washington in early 2012 for supplying gasoline to Iran, reportedly has maintained gasoline export to the Islamic Republic.
Iran has earlier announced that production of gasoline in domestic refineries should be halted due to high pollution and 10 million liters of gasoline should be imported instead. In turn, Iran plans to import this amount of gasoline from abroad.
According to the oil ministry, Iran's petrochemical complexes will not produce gasoline and octane booster anymore. The country's average gasoline consumption stood at 67 million liters in the previous year.