Azerbaijan, Baku, Feb.22 / Trend F.Mehdi/
Daily gasoline consumption in Iran fell by 3.1 million liters in the final week of the calendar month of Bahman, which ended on February 18, IRNA reported.
The daily gasoline consumption decreased to 60.6 million liters, compared to 63.7 million liters consumed the previous week.
On February 4, Iranian MP Mehdi Mousavinejad said that cutting gasoline imports in the current time is not feasible, because domestic production does not meet demands, the YJC news website reported.
The country has not reached self-sufficiency in gasoline production, he said, adding that cutting gasoline imports will damage the transportation sector.
This is while Iran's Oil Minister Rostam Qasemi says the Islamic Republic will become an exporter of gasoline in less than two months, according to Press TV.
Qasemi said the facility had made Iran independent of gasoline imports, adding that the country would turn into an exporter of this important oil product by the next Iranian year (starting March 21.)
The Iranian oil minister further dismissed as ineffective the U.S.-engineered sanctions against the country's oil sector.
Qasemi also noted that the Islamic Republic has also undertaken to optimize several refineries, including those in Bandar Abbas, Tabriz and Isfahan, saying that all of these projects will come on stream by March 2014 at the latest.