Tehran, Iran, April 26
By Milad Fashtami - Trend:
Iran's gasoline reserves currently stand at 1.9 billion liters.
Iran's IRIB News Agency quoted National Iranian Oil Refining and Distribution Company (NIORDC) Managing Director Abbas Kazemi saying that the figure shows 13 percent increase compared to last months of previous year (which ended on March 20).
Regarding the increasing trend of gasoline consumption in the first half the year, Kazemi said there is no need to worry.
"Once the gasoline production units at Isafahan and Bandar Abbas refineries, as well as the first phase of Persian Gulf Star gas condensates refinery come on stream, Iran will no longer need to import gasoline," he explained.
Kazemi said on April 13 that Iran plans to daily import 10 million liters of gasoline to compensate for stopping production of gasoline in petrochemical complexes.
"Iranian government ordered the petrochemical complexes to stop producing gasoline," he said, adding that the country's gasoline imports were around 3.5 million liters per day in the previous calendar year, which ended on March 20.
Iran's petrochemical complexes will not produce gasoline and octane booster anymore, according to the oil ministry.
The decision was made because the gasoline produced in petrochemical complexes has been reported as polluting.
Iranian petrochemical complexes started producing gasoline once the U.S. put gasoline trades with Iran under sanction.
Head of Iran's Department of Environment, Massoumeh Ebtekar, said on February 9 that the gasoline produced in petrochemical complexes is highly polluting.
Last year, according to PSI (Pollutant Standards Index), Iran had 147 days during which air quality was substandard. Two years ago, this number stood at 217 days.
The air over Iran's capital, Tehran, is among the most polluted in the world.
Experts say many Iranians suffer serious health problems as a result. Iran's gasoline consumption surpassed 100 million liters per day on April 1, marking an all-time high record, Iranian Mehr News Agency reported.
The country's gasoline consumption stood at 100.7 million liters per day on the mentioned day, which was unprecedented.
Some 24.5 billion liters of gasoline was consumed in Iran in the previous year, which is 1.8 billion liters more than its preceding year, according to the managing director of National Iranian Oil Products Distribution Company (NIOPDC), Mostafa Kashkouli.
The country's average gasoline consumption stood at 67 million liters in the previous year.