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Iraq major importer of Iranian gasoline

Iran Materials 26 October 2010 10:48 (UTC +04:00)

Iraq has been the major importer of Iranian gasoline since the country began to export domestically produced fuel, Iran's Customs Administration reported.

The report shows that 32 million liters of gasoline worth 370 billion rial (some $37 million) have been exported to foreign countries, the Islamic Republic of Iran News Network reported.

Iraq, Afghanistan and Armenia were the major buyers of Iranian gasoline, while Iraq's imports accounted for the 47 percent of the total figure.

Iran exported its first domestically produced gasoline to Iraq in September.

Iranian Oil Minister Masoud Mirkazemi announced in September that the country reached self-sufficiency after increasing its gasoline production to 66.5 million liters.

He later said Iran had stopped placing orders for gasoline purchase from abroad after increasing its domestic production.

Eventually Iran stopped the export of petrochemical products following the implementation of a crash program to boost gasoline production in domestic petrochemical units.

The managing director of the National Iranian Oil Products Refining and Distribution Company Ali-Reza Zeighami said on August 29 Iran is about to take-off on producing a target 191 million liters of gasoline a day by the end of the Fifth Development Plan (2015). He said that the country consumes 64 million liters a day.

He added that if the gasoline rationing plan is not implemented the consumption figure will increase between 100 to 120 million liters a day.

Iran announced on Sept. 7 it had achieved a massive increase in its refining capacity and no longer needed to import 20 million liters of its 64-million-liter daily consumption.

Under the rationing scheme introduced in 2007, a motorist can buy 60 liters of subsidized fuel per month for just 1,000 rials per liter (around $0.11). Beyond that amount they have to pay a "semi-subsidized" price of 4,000 rials.

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