Baku, Azerbaijan, Nov. 7
By Dalga Khatinoglu, Khalid Kazimov - Trend:
Iranian gasoline imports have increased 4.4 percent since the start of the current fiscal year, which began on March 21.
The country has imported, on average, 8.85 million liters of gasoline per day (ml/d) during the first 225 days of this fiscal year, which is a 4.4 percent increase year-to-year, according to Fars news agency on November 6, citing the Iranian Oil Refining and Distribution Company's (NIORDC) statistics.
NIORDC's latest annual bulletin, reporting on production statistics through March 2013, says Iran began importing gasoline in 1982. Of note, official statistics indicate that gasoline imports have been increasing since 2013.
Iran imported about 27.5 ml/d of gasoline in the 2016 fiscal year, with this figure slightly declining in the following years. However, after the US imposed sanctions on Iranian imports in 2010, Teheran's gasoline imports were cut by half and imports dropped to 1.8 ml/d in 2012.
Iran has been continuously increasing gasoline imports since 2013.
Mehr news agency quoted Oil Minister Bizhan Namdar Zangeneh on September 1 as saying that Iran has been importing seven to eight ml/d of gasoline since March 21.
"The actual needs of the country are more than this amount. We could not import more," Zanganeh said.
According to Fars, Iranian refineries have had an average output of 68 ml/d of gasoline between March 21 - Nov 1, an increase of four percent. The report suggests that gasoline consumption was about 72.5 million liters in the mentioned period, increasing by 2.7 per cent compared to last year.
Citing NIORDC, Fars says that the existing gasoline in the country, as of Nov 1, was 932 million litters, which was 358 million litters less than at the same time last year.