Iran exported 560 million liters of diesel during March-August, generating $250 million in revenues, managing director of the National Iranian Oil Refining and Distribution Company said.
“We were a diesel importer until a year ago,” Seyyed Nasser Sajjadi was quoted as saying by Moj News Agency. “But following the rise in diesel supply (as feedstock) to industries, consumption has fallen, and for the first time, we have become a diesel exporter.”
Pakistan and Afghanistan are the major customers of Iranian diesel, while several consignments have been shipped in the past five months to foreign destinations.
According to Sajjadi, Iran has also finalized a deal to supply diesel to western neighbor Iraq and the shipment is now underway.
Following the launch of several phases of the South Pars Gas Field in the Persian Gulf last year and increase in natural gas output, gas has replaced mazut and diesel as feedstock in some refineries and power plants, availing the surplus for export.
In addition, the government has instructed power plants and refineries to use gas instead of more polluting feedstock such as diesel due to abundance of gas resources in Iran and the rise in gas extraction from South Pars’ rich reserves.
Increasing scrutiny on diesel-fueled vehicles and curbing diesel smuggling have also helped lower the consumption of this product. Iran is ready to expand the export of jet fuels to foreign markets, the official said, noting that it supplied 2,000 tons of the fuel to its biggest jet fuel importer Afghanistan in the past five months.
Earlier this month, Sajjadi said Iran will become a gasoline exporter once the first phase of the Persian Gulf Star Refinery in the southern port city of Bandar Abbas goes on stream. Iran imports around 6.4 million liters of gasoline a day to meet domestic demand.
