From March 19, two days before the beginning of the Norouz (Iranian New Year) holiday season, until its end on April 3, on average 112 million liters of gasoline were consumed every day across Iran, managing director of the National Iranian Oil Products Distribution Company said.
“This year’s consumption shows an increase of 30% compared with the same period of last year when motorists burned 87 million liters of gasoline,” Keramat Veis-Karami was also quoted as saying by the Oil Ministry’s news agency Shana.
“One of the most important reasons regarding the rise in the fuel consumption is the increase in the number of trips people made during the holidays,” he added.
Norouz holidays are traditionally a time when Iranians travel and visit each other. More traveling this year has happened as the sixth wave of coronavirus in Iran appears to have been subsiding.
However, observing health protocols is still a necessity since the disease has not been fully controlled yet. Under the travel rules released for Iran’s third Norouz with Covid-19, only those who received at least two doses of vaccines were allowed to travel by private cars across the country during the holidays, otherwise they were fined.
According to official statistics, over 56 million Iranians have received the second dose of vaccines while over 24 million others had their third shot.
Over the past two years, because of [Covid-19] and the related travel restrictions, gasoline consumption had been subdued
According to Oil Minister Javad Owji, gasoline consumption hit a daily record of 131 million liters per day on March 19.
“Over the past two years, because of [Covid-19] and the related travel restrictions, gasoline consumption had been subdued. But with the improvement in the Covid-19 situation [in recent months] and the resumption of travel, gasoline consumption has increased,” said.
Domestic demand has rebounded from pandemic lows and has been rising steadily since Iran lifted most of its Covid-19 restrictions late last year, to the point that Owji warned that the country could become a net importer of gasoline and gasoil within two to three years if domestic consumption continues to rise at current rates.
This has led the government to consider ways of reducing domestic demand, one of which is implementing a new fuel pricing and rationing system.
On the supply side, the government plans to raise domestic refining capacity.
Last September, the government announced plans to raise the country's crude oil and condensate refining capacity to 3.5 million barrels per day by 2025, up from around 2.2 million bpd now.
According to Jalil Salari, director of the National Iranian Oil Refining and Distribution Company, a subsidiary of the National Iranian Oil company, NIORDC stopped exporting fuel to meet gasoline demand for the Norouz holidays.
“Development projects in Lavan Refinery are complete and the facility can now convert naphtha into 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.
Iran has the world's second-cheapest gasoline after Venezuela. While one liter of gasoline in Venezuela costs 2 cents, it is sold for 5 cents in Iran. The average international price for the same fuel is about $1.
