Bijan Namdar Zanganeh who was addressing the ceremony held in Department of Environment on the occasion of International Mother Earth Day (April 22), said that the ministry was fully committed to standards and code of conduct on environment.
“In this venue, improving the quality of oil products is an important program pursued by the ministry in attempts to reduce air pollution; the impact of Euro-4 gasoline was rather unexpected in improving air quality,” Zanganeh told the ceremony.
“Currently, the amount of sulfur in gas oil produced is below 10ppm; Euro-4 gasoline is supplied for public consumption in Tehran, Arak, Karaj, Tabriz, and Esfahan; Euro-4 gas oil is supplied in Shiraz and other megacities,” said the minister. “Removing hydrocarbons from fuel is a great feat the ministry accomplished in line with its commitments to the clean environment; in addition, commissioning and operation of the first refinery in Persian Gulf with capacity of 36 million liters of Euro-4 and Euro-5 gasoline contributed to a new level of air quality improvement,” Zanganeh asserted.
“Supply and distribution of natural gas is a third example of Oil Ministry’s environmentally-conscious measures; environmental necessities would encumber parts of industries with additional costs; however, natural gas sector is not only cost-inducing, but also it is a source of income creation,” the minister emphasized.
“Apart from measures and actions in natural gas sector, the ministry has entered in other venues to protect the environment; improvement of the quality of residential and business buildings’ heating and cooling systems is also important,” Zanganeh added. “Improved quality of public transportation is where the ministry was active; phasing out of 13,000 worn-out vehicles and replacing them with the same number of new vehicles burning gas as fuel; 140,000 old taxies will be replaced by brand new and gas-burning taxies,” he detailed.
“400,000 electrical motorcycles will go operative as a pilot study in a municipality district where gasoline motorcycles are not allowed to enter; we replaced track carriers with railroad cargo carrier wagons; we renewed 65,000 trailer and tracks and trained the public on them, as part of our mission and commitment to the environment,” said the minister. “No country in the world has used CNG as vehicle fuel than Iran; currently, vehicles consume 20 million cubic meters of CNG daily, equal to 20 million liters of gasoline; additional 20 million cubic meters are burned and wasted away by industrial sector,” Zanganeh said.
Zanganeh also announced establishment of Health and Security Executive (HSE) Central Board in the ministry with mandate and authority equal to a supreme council; “we expressed clear opposition to oil discovery in dried Hourolazim wetland, since it is possible to extract oil by sea platforms in a relatively small area; Hour is a national natural asset to be preserved for posterity, and oil production should not provide pretexts to destroy this asset,” Zanganeh concluded.
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