TEHRAN (Iran News) – Head of Iranian Oil, Gas and Petrochemical Products Exporters’ Union blames the role of mafia groups in return of Iran’s oil products from Afghanistan and reiterated that Iran’s oil products are all standard.
Speaking to ILNA, Mr. Ahmad Maroufkhani reacted to recent reports that Taliban government has returned all gasoline imported from Iran and said that Iran’s oil products are all based on the international standards and the country exports its products to countries in the Persian Gulf without any problem.
He added that last year Iran exported oil products worth of $11m liters but he has no exact date about how much of the export belongs to private or state sectors. He added that members of the union exported $8.4b of oil products, adding that the real private sector exported $4.6b and if the petrochemical sector which is mostly state-private is added to the figure it will hit $9b.
Maroufkhani added that Persian Gulf states, Al-Hamrieh and Pakistan were major destinations for exports and small amount was also Afghanistan-bound.
He added that the private sector does not export something called gasoline and gas oil, adding that export of gasoline and gas oil is only in the authority of the National Iranian Oil Refining and Distribution Company that the figure is almost zero. He noted that the products which are produced by the private sector are like gas oil and gasoline but they are not the final product.
On return of Iran’s exported gasoline to Afghanistan, he said that those were the transited goods which had been sent via Kurdistan of Iraq which were rejected by Taliban government. He added that unfortunately in the Taliban government some mafia groups have taken the control which do unprofessional acts and based on their own taste return the products which are even in the international standards and they approve some other products through lobbying. He added therefore Afghanistan market is not a yardstick for Iranian products and all reports on the low quality of Iranian gasoline products are not correct.
Maroufkhani went on to say that current one product of one of the petrochemical complexes has been exported to Afghanistan in large number with non-standard quality which has been approved and being consumed in Afghanistan because mafia is behind it and since in other fields there are no mafias, there have been no problems and exports are underway. He reiterated that so the issue of disapproval of Iranian gasoline in Afghanistan is a mafia issue and it is not considered as a yardstick for being non-standard.
He reiterated that the product which is exported to Afghanistan under the name of gasoline is not the product of refinery and it is a petrochemical company’s product.
He added that the returned product is not used in the domestic market at all and they are sent to the Persian Gulf states where something is added to it to become a good and quality product and in fact it is exported as the raw material for producing gasoline.
