Gasoline inventories are full and the National Iranian Oil Refining and Distribution Company has no plans to import fuel to meet gasoline demand for the Norouz (Iranian New Year) holiday season, director of NIORDC, a subsidiary of the National Iranian Oil company, said.
“Daily gasoline consumption in Iran has exceeded 86 million liters and it is predicted to surpass 100 ml/d between March 17 and April 1 when families travel across the country,” Jalil Salari was also quoted as saying by IRNA.
NIORDC produces 105 million liters of gasoline per day, of which 52% are produced by the Persian Gulf Star Refinery and the rest by Shazand Refinery in Arak, Markazi Province, Tabriz Refinery in East Azarbaijan and Bandar Abbas and Lavan refineries in Hormozgan Province, he added.
Referring to plans to raise output, Salari noted that development projects in Lavan Refinery are complete and the facility can now convert naphtha to gasoline with the help of domestically-produced catalysts.
“The refinery’s naphtha was exported, but now that the conversion unit is complete and the catalyst is available, exports are halted and naphtha is converted to gasoline,” he said.
The supply of gasoline, diesel and other oil derivatives across the country is continuing normally and there are no worries in this regard.
“All refineries are up and running, and petroleum byproducts have been transferred to fuel depots in major cities as usual,” he added.
The official reassured that gasoline inventories are full and the fuel has been transferred from refineries both via pipelines and tanker trucks.
LPG Output
Salari noted that around 20,000 tons of liquefied petroleum gas are produced in Iran per day, half of which is sold in regions that still do not have access to piped gas, namely in southern provinces like Sistan-Baluchestan and Kerman.
“Although one million cars are equipped with LPG kits, the Oil Ministry does not intend to add LPG to the country’s car fuel basket,” he said.
“As long as cars can run on compressed natural gas, LPG should be used for more useful purposes like petrochemical feedstock to be converted to more value-added products.”
Iran has some of the world’s largest natural gas resources and grids in the world. Substituting CNG with LPG in the energy mix does not make economic sense.
He said the capacity to produce LPG is limited. Moreover, there are two million households that are not yet linked to the national gas grid and need LPG for cooking needs.
“Each ton of LPG can be sold at $500 in international markets,” whereas CNG (compressed natural gas) has little international demand as it needs costly networks for export. LPG accounts for 3% of the energy mix in Iran while the share of natural gas exceeds 70%.
LPG should only be used as an alternative to heating oil and electricity in regions lacking gas pipelines, he added.
Liquefied Fuels
According to Salari, close to 21 billion liters of liquefied fuels have been delivered to thermal power plants since March, up 1 billion liters compared to a year ago.
Giving a breakdown, he noted that mazut supply to power stations in the period amounted to 6 billion liters, which has not changed compared to 2020. Nonetheless, diesel delivery has increased by 1 billion liters to reach 15 billion liters.
NIORDC transfers close to 210 million liters of crude and petroleum products, including gasoline, diesel, jet fuel and kerosene, nationwide on a daily basis.
“A large proportion of the fuels are supplied via 13,000 tanker trucks by land.”
On moving oil byproducts from the north to oil terminals in the south for export, he said studies on Ray-Arak-Ahvaz pipeline are underway, which will allow the transport of petroleum products from south to north and vice versa.
Exporting oil byproducts to neighboring states like Iraq, Armenia, Pakistan and Afghanistan is on track, he added.
Highlighting the NIOPDC policy to reduce export costs, Salari said, "Regarding pipelines and other infrastructure such as oil storage facilities, the closer the storage units to border areas, the less expense will be incurred for exports, which in turn will curb fuel smuggling."
