Tehran, Iran, Sept. 24
By Milad Fashtami - Trend:
The first consignment of the United Arab Emirates' gasoline was unloaded in Iranian ports in order to be transited to Iraq.
The consignment consists of 24 million liters of gasoline, Iran's Mehr News Agency reported on September 24.
The activity of IS (also known as ISIS, ISIL, Islamic State group) has forced several gas facilities in certain parts of Iraq to close, thus the country needs to import gasoline to meet domestic demands.
The private sector receives the consignment of UAE gasoline in Iranian ports and delivers the same amount of gasoline to Iraqi part at the border.
Iraq is currently facing severe gasoline shortage, and Iranian private sector tries to make some profit by delivering gasoline to Iraq.
But Iran's total gasoline production is less than its domestic consumption. So, the private companies need to turn to oil swap and transit.
Iranian government officially issued the license for bartering heavy crude for gasoline and diesel oil.
The decision was made due to shortage of mentioned products in the market, Iran's Mehr News Agency reported on September 17.
Iran needs to daily import around 10 million liters of gasoline to meet its domestic demands, but the country currently imports around half of the mentioned figure.
The country only imports gasoline conforming to Euro-4 standard as importing Euro-2 gasoline has been banned.
Former Managing Director of the National Iranian Oil Products Distribution Company (NIOPDC) Mostafa Kashkouli had previously estimated that Iran's gasoline consumption will reach 74 million liters per day in the current year.
The country's gasoline output is currently around 60 million liters, so it needs to import the rest.
Shahrokh Khosravani, deputy director of National Iranian Oil Refining and Distribution Company (NIORDC), said on June 9 that Iran will be able to export 20 million liters of gasoline per day as of next year.
"Once the Persian Gulf Star refinery's gasoline production unit comes on stream, the country's total production capacity will reach 96 million liters per day," Khosravani said. "Then Iran will be able to export the surplus gasoline which is around 20 million liters per day."
He went on to note that the first phase of the Persian Gulf Star refinery (with the capacity to produce 12 million liters of gasoline per day) will come on stream by the end of the next Iranian calendar year (March 20, 2016).
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