The National Iranian Oil Company’s gasoline export revenues reached $32 million between March 21 and April 20.
According to the Islamic Republic of Iran Customs Administration's Statistics Office, the state-run firm sold close to 116 million liters (86,000 tons) of fuel in the 30-day period, IRNA reported.
The figure indicates a decline of 83% compared with the corresponding period of last year.
The downtrend shows that the domestic consumption of the fuel is on the rise and there will be no exports in the not-too-distant future. In fact, the company will have to start importing gasoline unless domestic consumption is curbed.
The National Iranian Oil Refining and Distribution Company, a subsidiary of NIOC, produces 110 million liters of gasoline per day, of which 100 ml/d are used domestically.
The Oil Ministry started offering oil products, namely gasoline and diesel, on the Iran Energy Exchange in 2019 when daily consumption was around 85 million liters.
Each liter of gasoline is sold at 4 cents in Iran and the same amount of fuel costs 100 cents in Afghanistan.
Figures released by the Headquarters to Combat Smuggling of Goods and Foreign Exchange show that close to 9 million liters of oil byproducts, including diesel and gasoline, are smuggled out daily.
According to Mojtaba Mahfouzi, a lawmaker from Abadan, the huge figure (9 ml/d) indicates that the illicit and dangerous fuel trafficking is a very organized business that cannot be undertaken by smugglers in and around borders.
“There should be a mafia-like organization behind the scene controlling the whole thing, but what we are seeing is a couple of smugglers. All related organizations and executive bodies in the country should be held accountable for the crime,” he said.
The illicit trade is carried out systemically and with the support of well-placed lobbies that know how to cheat and dodge the law-enforcement agencies.
Among neighbors, Turkey, Iraq, Pakistan and Afghanistan are the main destinations of the smuggled fuel.
