Abbas Kazemi said Iran has turned from an importer to an exporter of gasoline in the current Iranian year.
Managing Director of National Iranian Oil Refining and Distribution Company (NIORDC) emphasized that currently a daily average of more than 10 million liters of gasoline in being exported to the Middle East market adding “the export capacity of the product will be further increased by next Iranian year after implementation of three new projects as well as optimization of the production process at existing refineries.”
Deputy oil minister further stated that the increased exports capacity of gasoline has been achieved by the rise in gas production and replacing gasoline with natural gas in the industry and power generating units; “in time with exports, a daily average of approximately 31 million liters of gasoline with Euro 4 standard is being distributed in the country’s major cities,” he noted.
The official noted that new Euro 4 gasoline refineries will become operational in the year 2016 in order to offer low-sulfur gasoline in all gas stations; “at the moment, Iran possesses excess capacity to produce and export petroleum products like aviation fuel, liquefied petroleum gas, kerosene, mazut and gasoline.”
Kazemi recalled that the Middle Eastern countries, especially Afghanistan, Iraq, Iraqi Kurdistan and Pakistan are Iran’s big oil export markets while exports through marine routes have been put on the agenda as well.
In response to a question about economic feasibility of entering the petroleum products’ market considering the falling oil prices, the official explained, “we are forced to do so being faced with surplus in production of diesel oil, gasoline, LPG and mazut as a result of their replacement with natural gas.”
Underlining that the average sales price per cubic meter of gas is about 20 cents, Kazemi reiterated that, “currently, petroleum products are much more expensive than natural gas making their export economically feasible.”
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