Baku, Azerbaijan, May 3
By Umid Niayesh - Trend:
Daily gasoline consumption in Iran has increased to 72.5 million liters in the week ended on May 1, which indicates a 3.672 million liters rise compared to the preceding week.
The weekly consumption amounted to 507.5 million liters, showing 25.7 million liters increase week on week, the oil ministry's official SHANA news agency reported May 3.
April 30(Thursday) with 83.9 million liters, and April 27(Monday) with 67.1 million liters respectively recorded the highest and lowest rate of gasoline consumption in the mentioned week.
According to the report, 27.1 million liters of premium gasoline was consumed in the 7-day period.
The country's gasoline output is currently around 62 million liters, so it needs to import the rest. The Islamic Republic currently only imports Euro-4 gasoline.
The country's total production capacity will reach 96 million liters per day by March 21, 2015 once the Persian Gulf Star refinery's gasoline production unit comes on stream.
Iran used to import 40 percent of its needed gasoline by 2009. But the international sanctions forced it to produce gasoline domestically by adding lead or some poisonous chemical catalysts such as MTBE to the product. MTBE, or methyl tertiary butyl ether, is an oxygenate added to gasoline to boost octane levels and to help fuel burn cleaner. While it's been replaced by ethanol in the U.S. after it contaminated drinking water, other countries still use it. Its offensive odor and taste can render water undrinkable, while its health effects are unclear.
The administration of President Hassan Rouhani ordered to stop the distribution of substandard gasoline.
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