TEHRAN, Iran, Sep. 24
Trend:
Converting 2 million gasoline-powered vehicles to run on CNG (Compressed Natural Gas) costs $800 million while building the necessary refinery to meet the gasoline consumption needs of these cars, (ie producing about 20 million liters of gasoline per day) would cost around $8 billion.
The development of the CNG industry in Iran has been considered for more than a decade, as the gas network has spread throughout Iran and now 98 percent of the urban population and 82 percent of the rural population have access to the gas network, Trend reports citing IRNA.
With the development of this industry along with the increase of the country's processing capacity, Iran was able to export gasoline and petroleum products. The country's CNG consumption is currently 25 million cubic meters per day.
Mohammad Rezaei, the director for research and technology in the National Iranian Oil Refining and Distribution Company (NIORDC) believes that if the total needed fuel were to be supplied with gasoline, a refinery with an investment of $8 billion would need to be built over four years.
Mohammad Rezaei also emphasized that 10 to 15 million liters of gasoline will be saved by converting 1.4 million public gasoline-powered vehicles to run on CNG.
"So instead of investing $8 billion (to build new refinery), we can spend $ 800 million to produce CNG powered vehicles," he noted.