TEHRAN (Iran News) –Head of the Iranian Union of Oil, Gas and Petrochemical Exporters Mr Seyed Hamid Hosseini says if the gasoline consumption in the country continues with the current pace, the country will once again turn into a gasoline importing state.
Speaking to ILNA, Hosseini said that the overhaul process of some refineries have prolonged and they have faced with problems in providing required parts and some of the refineries are under reconstruction and renovation, and for these reasons they have problem in production, and the rise in consumption because of the rise in the number of cars rolling in the streets has led to the rise in gasoline consumption. He reiterated that one should add gasoline smuggling to these problems as the other reasons for gasoline supply problem. He noted that today the amount of gasoline production equals with consumption but in the summer when the consumption will be more than production, the country will definitely turn into a gasoline importing country.
He went on to say that the capacity for gasoline production in the country is currently 110m liters per day and last year some 105m liters per day of gasoline was produced, reiterating that the real gasoline production capacity is around 103m liters per day but currently some 98m liters per day of gasoline is produced for the mentioned reasons.
Hosseini also said that the distributed gasoline in the big cities of the country is Euro 4 and 5, adding that 45m liters is Euro 4 which is produced at Shazand Refinery of Arak, adding that some refineries are still unable to produce Euro 4 and 5 gasoline but one should not blame this for the air pollution in big cities because one of the main factors behind air pollution is the old public transportation like taxi and bus and also the fuel which is used by the power plants.
He also said that major distributed gasoline is high quality one but most of vehicles are not standard, adding that if the country maintains daily production of gasoline at 104m liters per day, there will be no need to import gasoline or use gasoline of petro-refineries by the yearend.
He went on to say that the considerable difference between the price of gasoline in Iran with neighboring states has encouraged smuggling of gasoline to those countries and adjusting the price of gasoline in the country will help gasoline consumption in the country and decrease the amount of smuggling of gasoline to the neighboring states.
