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Over 3.7 million cars in Iran run on CNG

Oil&Gas Materials 30 November 2014 15:03 (UTC +04:00)

Tehran, Iran, Nov. 30

By Milad Fashtami - Trend:

Currently there are over 3.7 million cars in Iran running on the compressed natural gas (CNG).

Around two million vehicles were equipped with CNG tanks in factories, while 900,000 others were equipped in legal units.

But some 800,000 cars underwent the procedure in illegal units and may be unsafe, Iran's Afkar news agency reported Nov. 30.

The Head of Iran's CNG Station Owners Ardeshir Dadras said that around 2.6 million CNG-consuming cars have not been inspected for over 2.5 years.

"Some of the cars have not been inspected for even 8 years," he said.

"People can simply pay 80,000-100,000 rials ($2.5 - $3.12 based on the exchange rate of US dollar at the free market) to buy the inspection approval holograms without being inspected," he said.

Dadras said on July 7 that some 90 percent of the major cities' taxis, as well as 60 percent of the vehicles used in public transportation sector, are currently using CNG.

According to Dadras, there are totally 17 million cars and 9 million motorcycles in Iran.

"With 17 million cars, Iran totally has 5,000 gas stations, while neighboring Turkey with 9 million cars has 12,800 gas stations," he explained.

The Managing Director of Iranian Fuel Conservation Company Nasrollah Seifi said on Sept. 1 that Iran has the biggest CNG vehicles fleet in the world, Iran's Shana news agency reported.

"It is while the country is not even among top ten countries in the world in terms of CNG stations," he added.

"Iran's CNG consumption was around five million liters per year in the Iranian calendar year of 1381 (ended March 20, 2003), but the figure reached seven billion in the calendar year of 1391 (ended March 20, 2013)," he said, adding that the figure shows over 1,400 percent increase.

Iran constructed 188 CNG stations in the past 12 months.

The oil ministry also signed contracts to construct nearly 1,000 new stations, bringing the total number to over 3,000, the Shana news agency reported Aug. 31.

The Managing Director of the National Iranian Oil Refining and Distribution Company Abbas Kazemi said Aug. 27 that currently there are over 2,200 CNG stations across the country, the Mehr news agency reported.

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