Azerbaijan, Baku, March 18 /Trend M. Moezzi/
After 84 years of dependence on imports, Iran has become self-sufficient in producing petrol even planning to export it, the Iranian Students' News Agency (ISNA) reports.
Iran's reliance on imports of petrol began in 1927 with imports of the first passenger vehicles that used it.
Demand for petrol in Iran grew to an average of 70 million liters a day by 2007. The start of the country's targeted subsidies program, which rolled back subsidies on commodities and energy sources while paying Iranians about $45 a month pushed down consumption from 75 million liters a day less than 63 million liters a day.
While Iran once imported 28 million liters of petrol a day, it imported none this year.
The opening of the Imam Khomeini Shazand refinery and several others will increase Iran's production to 73.
This increased production, combined with Iranians' lower consumption of the fuel, makes it possible for Iran to export petrol this coming year (Iran's solar year ends on March 20).
As refinery projects are finished, Iran expects to produce 131 million liters of petrol by the end of its Fifth Five-Year Socio Economic Development plan 2011-2015.
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