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.

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Hosseini said that it is for a while that Iraq and Afghanistan have turned to buy gasoline from Uzbekistan and Russia due to its good quality and these two countries have improved the standards for their imports. He added that the demand for high quality gasoline and products has been the main reason for Iran’s exported gasoline to Afghanistan and these two countries do not buy low quality goods any longer.

He went on to say that the exported gasoline to Afghanistan has not been the product of mother refinery and small refineries have produced it which is not in the standard level.

Hosseini added that with the increase in quality of exporting products of other countries have led to shrink of Iran’s exporting market while in the past even up to 90% of oi products exporting markets were in hands of Iran.

He added that with this change in taste and demand, the small refineries are unable to improve their quality of products because the  Headquarters of the Iranian Anti-Smuggling Task Force have ordered  the refineries that they should not produce any product similar to what is produced in the mother refineries.

He said small refineries produce low quality product and it is rejected by the domestic customers and therefore is exported. He said that small refineries should be granted the license for producing products with better quality like Euro3 gasoline and gasoil in order that the country does not face with fuel supply in the summer.

Hosseini noted that although Uzbekistan and Russia sell good quality gasoline, Afghan customers still demand Iran’s gasoline and they have accepted all consequences and costs and in some cases the exported product to Afghanistan is returned and it has nothing to do with Iranian exporter because he has sold his product and has taken its money.

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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.

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Speaking to ILNA, Hosseini touched upon the importance of cutting the free rate gasoline quota from 250 liters to 150 liters and said that due to high potentials for smuggling gasoline, it was a correct decision because 60 liters of subsidized gasoline plus 150 liters of free rate gasoline is enough for a normal household.

He went on to say that gasoline production has declined by 11% in Persian Gulf Star Refinery and the country needs to construct a new refinery to compensate the shortage and it will take 3 to 4 years or the country will have to import gasoline otherwise the country should move towards producing gasoline in petrochemical companies or control consumption and demand and currently the best and safest is to control the consumption.

Hosseini admitted that currently the country is unable to sell gasoline at its real price in the country because of its bitter experiences in the past for hiking the prices, adding that due to big difference between gasoline prices in Iran with neighboring countries, it is smuggled and the best solution for controlling the market is rationing quota of cars.

He noted that if the government does not allocate rationing quota for 2500cc cars or more, a new price will be imposed in the market and owners of luxury cars will have to buy gasoline with higher prices and the government will at least move to hike the price of super gasoline or unsubsidized its price.

Hosseini reiterated that reducing the rationing quota does not mean necessarily reduction in consumption and gasoline with low price is apt to smuggling.

He admitted that due to decline in production and rise in consumption, there is possibility for the country to resort to imports, adding that there are some solutions to avoid imports and one is to optimize the fuel consumption especially in vehicles through changing or repairing engines of cars. He added that the second solution is to collect old and dilapidated cars which overconsume gasoline and cause pollution.

Hosseini stated that the other solution is smartizing the fuel consumption to monitor the amount of consumed fuel by each vehicle and the last one is to construct refinery and increase the production capacity.

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A vessel carrying 147,800 liters of smuggled gasoil intended to leave the country’s territorial waters but the consignment was seized by the maritime security forces of Qeshm, IRIB reported on Tuesday.

The smuggled fuel is worth 145 billion rials (about $500,000), the report added. Seven crew members of the vessel were also detained for further investigation.

Recently, smuggled goods worth 2 trillion rials (nearly $7 million) have been confiscated across the country.Jalal Amini, head of the anti-trafficking police, said in July that smuggled goods worth 2 trillion rials (nearly $7.1 million) have been confiscated across the country through the third stage of the plan to combat the smuggling of goods and currency.

In order to help domestic production, the fight against smuggling is underway continuously through monitoring of goods (origin and destination), implementation of plans, periodic and intermittent inspections of roads, etc. are on the agenda by the anti-trafficking police throughout the country, he explained.

The smuggled goods include basic goods, home appliances, electronic and medical equipment, car, cosmetics, clothes, and currencies, IRIB reported.

He went on to say that 1,037 accused were arrested and presented to judicial authorities, and 622 vehicles were seized.

Every year, $20-25 billion worth of goods are smuggled in and out of the country, which, if stopped, will create hundreds of thousands of jobs, MP Hassan Norouzi has said.

Mohammad Hassan Nejad, a member of the Majlis (the Iranian parliament) energy committee, says the smuggled fuel amounts to 22 million liters per day. With a 50 cent per liter profit, the total daily income adds up to 400 trillion rials annually or $3.3 billion, nearly the same as the country’s annual development budget.

In June 2020, the first phase of the national anti-smuggling plan was implemented with the priority of customs, tobacco, and transit goods nationwide.

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Over the past few years, the Islamic Republic has managed to not only become self-sufficient in gasoline production but also become a net exporter of the strategic fuel, however, the significant increase in domestic gasoline consumption in recent months has once again raised concerns about the need for imports.

Iran became a net gasoline exporter in February 2019, after the inauguration of the third phase of the Persian Gulf Star Refinery (PGS) project which added 120,000 barrels to the country’s daily gasoline production.

The increase in the country’s gasoline production and exports came despite the fact that nearly two years ago Iran was an importer of the strategic product, shipping in over 4.5 million liters per day of gasoline.

The increase in the exports of the mentioned commodity is a result of the increase in the country’s refining capacity.

Over the past seven years, Iran’s refining capacity has also increased by about 500,000 barrels per day (bpd), according to the National Iranian Oil Refining and Distribution Company (NIORDC).

The country’s refining capacity, which stood at 1.8 million bpd in the Iranian calendar year 1392 (ended on March 20, 2014), has reached 2.3 million bpd.

There are currently 10 refineries in the country, nine of which are processing crude oil, and one is specially designed for refining gas condensate.

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Speaking to ILNA, Hosseini said that there is this possibility of facing gasoline shortage in the summer because of the consumption, adding that the country should reactivate refining activities with identifying the weak points or else the country may be forced to import oil products.

On the possibility of exporting gasoline by Iran,he said that due to rise in the daily gasoline which has reached 120m liters per day, the refineries are unable to export gasoline and therefore nobody expects gasoline exports from those refineries but some refineries like Shazand, Bouali and Nouri which have petrochemical units and some mini-refineries which produce gasoline or light hydrocarbon continue exports, and major gasoline demands of Afghanistan market which is some 100,000 to 150,000 liters per month are provided by these refineries and some is exported to Iraq market. He added that some good quality gasoline product of mini-refineries is also exported to the UAE.

He reiterated that all refineries now are working with full speed and capacities but it is possible due to the rise in consumption in the summer and the country could face gasoline and it may force the country to import gasoline or the country will have to reactivate some refineries.

Hosseini went on to say that of course refineries are now in a better condition and in case they can sell more gasoline and gas oil, they will do it because they will earn more. He noted that no refinery prefers to produce naphtha and sell it at $700 or $800 per ton while it can earn some $1150 for gas oil and $150 for gasoline per barrel.

Hosseini admitted that Iran’s oil products have faced a new rival which has entered the market and it is Russian oil products which are becoming major rival of Iranian products.

He went on to say that by the way now India buys crude oil from Russia with cheaper price and it has made Iran face trouble in exporting its bitumen to India which has been the major exporting destination for Iranian products, noting that in the past three months Iran’s bitumen exports to India have declined by 100,000 tons per month and it has dropped from 430,000 tons to 330,000 tons.

Hosseini reiterated that on the whole, the value of Iran’s oil exporting products has increased because of the rise in the international prices.

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Jalil Salari also said the average daily gasoline consumption has risen 15 million liters to 90 million liters in the current month, after easing the coronavirus restrictions.

Having the production capacity of nearly 120 million liters per day of gasoline, Iran currently has also the capacity to storage three billion liters of the strategic fuel.

Although the Islamic Republic is currently self-sufficient in gasoline production, fluctuations in consumption at different periods through the year have led to the creation of storage facilities across the country to manage the sustainable supply and distribution of gasoline.

These tanks will help the country’s refineries continue operating at full capacity if on certain days of the year (such as the Nowruz holidays) gasoline consumption reduces significantly, and also prevent any interruption in the supply of the fuel if consumption increases drastically.

In this regard, the capacity of the country’s gasoline storage facilities has increased in recent years, so much so that according to the National Iranian Oil Products Refining and Distribution Company, the volume of gasoline storage has increased from 1.8 billion liters to more than three billion liters.

According to the former NIORDC Managing Director Alireza Sadeq-Abadi, Iran is currently the biggest producer and exporter of gasoline in West Asia.

The country has achieved this success despite the external pressures and hurdles imposed by the U.S. sanctions on its oil industry, Sadeq-Abadi said back in January.

According to the deputy oil minister, the significant increase in the country’s gasoline production and exports comes despite the fact that nearly two years ago Iran was an importer of the strategic product, shipping in 17 million liters per day of gasoline.

“In [the Iranian calendar year] 1396 (ended on March 20, 2018), the production of gasoline in our country was 59 million liters per day; the figure reached 107 million liters per day last year, and today the country’s gasoline production capacity is between 107 to 120 million liters per day,” the official said.

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The NIORDC’s average daily gasoline distribution stood at 83 million cubic meters since the beginning of the current Iranian calendar year (March 21) up to August 4, Shana reported.

NIORDC Managing Director Keramat Veis-Karami had previously said that gasoline consumption in the country exceeded 107 million liters in some days of the Iranian calendar month of Tir, despite the pandemic-related travel restrictions.

Gasoline consumption in Iran has fluctuated since the outbreak of the coronavirus in the country.

In the early days of the pandemic, concerns over the virus minimized the travels across the country and led to a record decrease in consumption in the last Iranian calendar year’s first month (March 20-April 20, 2020).

On some days in April 2020, gasoline consumption even fell to 40 million liters and the average daily consumption did not exceed 50 million liters that month.

In general, gasoline consumption in the country declined 20 percent in the past Iranian calendar year, as compared to its preceding year due to rationing this fuel and also the coronavirus pandemic.

The Islamic Republic, which was an importer of gasoline for decades, exported over $1.4 billion worth of the fuel in the first seven months of the past Iranian calendar year (March 20-October 21, 2020).

The significant increase in the country’s gasoline production and exports comes despite the fact that nearly two years ago Iran was shipping in over 4.5 million liters per day of the strategic product.

Iran became a net gasoline exporter in February 2019, after the inauguration of the third phase of the Persian Gulf Star Refinery (PGS) project which added 120,000 barrels to the country’s daily gasoline production.

The increase in the exports of the mentioned commodity is a result of the increase in the country’s refining capacity and the decline in domestic consumption following the implementation of a rationing program.

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According to Khoram-Shokouh, the mentioned volume of exports has been carried out via 23 vessels and through three special wharves dedicated to the exports of petroleum products.

The official noted that the increase in the export of petroleum products and the high volume of traffic in the first and second wharves of the port has made the department consider adding a new wharf for this purpose.

Iran is currently the biggest producer and exporter of gasoline in West Asia, according to the Managing Director of National Iranian Oil Refining and Distribution Company (NIORDC) Alireza Sadeq-Abadi.

“We are exporting to most of our neighboring countries including Afghanistan, Pakistan, Armenia, Azerbaijan, and Iraqi Kurdistan,” Sadeq-Abadi said in January.

In the Iranian calendar year 1396 (ended on March 20, 2018), the production of gasoline in Iran stood at 59 million liters per day; the figure reached 107 million liters per day last year, and currently the country’s gasoline production capacity is between 107 to 120 million liters per day.

Iran has achieved this success despite the external pressures and hurdles imposed by the U.S. sanctions on the country’s oil industry, Sadeq-Abadi stated.

The significant increase in the country’s gasoline production and exports comes despite the fact that nearly two years ago Iran was an importer of the strategic product, shipping in 17 million liters per day of gasoline.

Iran exported over $1.4 billion worth of gasoline in the first seven months of the previous Iranian calendar year 1399 (March 20-October 21, 2020).

The country exported nearly $490 million worth of the mentioned commodity during the Iranian calendar year 1398 (ended on March 19, 2020).

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