Azerbaijan, Baku, Oct.20/ Trend F.Karimov/
Iran's gasoline production decreased by 10 million liters per day and will remain at the same level for a period of 25 days, the Mehr News Agency reported.
The fall in output is due to carrying out overhaul operations in Bandar Abbas refinery which is one of the largest gasoline producers in the country.
The refinery accounts for 19 per cent of the country's total gasoline production. It has the capacity to refine 350,000 barrels of crude oil and gas condensates per day.
Earlier this month, the Iranian Oil Minister Bijan Namdar Zanganeh said that Iran will daily import five to seven million liters of gasoline in the second half of the current Iranian calendar year that ends on March 20.
"We have not ordered imported gasoline from a certain company or country. We simply need to import up to seven million liters of gasoline to increase the country's reserves," the Mehr News Agency quoted Zanganeh as saying.
"The price of one liter of gasoline is currently 5,000 rials (some $0.16 based on the price of USD on the free market), but we import gasoline at the price of 70-80 cents per liter," he said, adding that the government needs to decide about fuel subsidies.
According to Zanganeh, the government will increase the price of gasoline next year.
Zanganeh said on September 10 that Iran needs to import gasoline to meet its domestic demands.
"Iran's gasoline production capacity will increase by up to seven million liters by the end of the current Iranian calendar year (March 20, 2014), but even then the country's gasoline output will not meet domestic demands," the ISNA News Agency quoted Zanganeh as saying.
Zanganeh went on to note that the government is not going to increase the price of gasoline in the current calendar year.
Gholamreza Mesbahi-Moqaddam, head of Iranian parliament (Majlis) Planning and Budget Committee also said on September 13 there is no law against importing gasoline.
"So if the oil minister says that the country needs to import gasoline, there is no legal objection to the decision," he added, the Mehr News Agency reported.
The county's gasoline output capacity is currently around 67 million liters per day.
Once the gasoline production units of Tabriz and Isfahan refineries come on stream, the figure would hit 70 million liters.
However, the oil minister still believes that Iran needs to import gasoline to meet domestic demands.
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