One hundred tanker trucks manufactured by a domestic company (Arya Diesel Motor) have joined the transportation fleet of the National Iranian Oil Products Distribution Company, the head of NIOPDC, a subsidiary of the National Iranian Oil Company, said.
“Close to 250 million liters of oil and derivatives, including liquefied petroleum gas, mazut, diesel and gasoline, are transferred per day countrywide, of which 70% are handled by tanker trucks,” Ali Akbar Nejad-Ali was also quoted as saying by the Oil Ministry’s news service.
NIOPDC will add 400 trucks to its fleet and an agreement worth $60 million has been signed with Bank Mellat, one of the leading privatized lenders in Iran, to finance the project, he added.
The official said the new trucks meet the Euro 4 fuel consumption standards, meaning they burn 30 liters of fuel every 100 kilometers, down from 45 liters of the previous tanker generation.
The mileage improvement will help save millions of dollars in transport costs.
Introduced in 2005, the Euro 4 standard defines the acceptable limit for exhaust emissions from vehicles.
Euro 5 and 6 standards were introduced in 2009 and 2014 respectively to further reduce fuel consumption in new vehicles.
Nejad-Ali noted that the length of NIOPDC's pipelines to transfer oil byproducts exceeds 14,000 kilometers, accounting for 36% of the total volume of oil byproduct transfer.
“The state-run company’s fleet is equipped with 10,000 oil tanker trucks, 62 LPG road tankers and 10 oil tankers. The grid moved 22 billion liters of crude and petroleum products in 1979, which figure has currently reached 90 billion liters per annum, up 300%,” he said.
Intelligent Pigging
According to the official, the company is using intelligent pigging of pipelines, controlling metal corrosion by using cathodic protection technique and undertaking regular inspections of installations to reduce the likelihood of accidents, theft and leaks.
He added that repair and renovation of pipelines are carried out on a regular basis for the sustainable and safe delivery of crude oil and byproducts.
“Iran's gasoline and diesel storage capacity has reached 13 billion liters. NIOPDC's storage facilities cover a wide geographical area, namely Neka in Mazandaran, Malayer in Hamedan, Rey in Tehran and Kharg Island, Asalouyeh, Mahshahr and Genaveh in Bushehr Province, while new units are under construction in Khuzestan and Hormozgan,” he said.
“Close to 91.5 billion liters of oil derivatives are transferred annually across the nation via pipelines, vessels and tanker trucks.”
Nejad-Ali said the average daily gasoline consumption in Iran has reached 103 million liters, “which is an unacceptable figure.”
“The volume of gasoline consumption in the country is at a critical level, as the refineries can produce at most 105 million liters of gasoline per day,” he said.
“Every year during fall, the amount of gasoline consumption decreased. However, this year, while the daily gasoline consumption in the summer was nearly 101 million liters, the figure not only declined in the months of fall, but also rose. At certain periods, the figure even reached as high as 105 million liters per day, which is the maximum production capacity in the country.”
