The National Iranian Oil Refining and Distribution Company is ready to distribute diesel compliant with Euro-4 and 5 standards nationwide, managing director of NIORDC said on Saturday.
"Plans have been devised to provide all passenger vehicles with Euro-4 and 5 diesel in all stations across the country," Abbas Kazemi also told Shana.
According to the official, automobile manufacturers should produce cars that can run on this quality fuel.
Underscoring the Oil Ministry and Fuel and Transport Management Organization's support for manufacturing diesel-run motor vehicles, Kazemi noted that experts are doing their best to implement the project and it will be marketed sooner or later.
Asked about NIORDC's readiness to supply all stations with quality diesel and liquefied petroleum gas, the official said as soon as the plan proves to be economically viable, it will be implemented.
Pointing to Oil Ministry's support for automakers in 2006 to produce EF7 engines, which not only used compressed natural gas as their main fuel but also could run on gasoline, Kazemi said, "If it were not because of the ministry's supportive role, we would have neither the cutting-edge knowhow nor the production line. We expect car manufacturers to mass-produce such engines."
"Users are more willing to buy cars that run on natural gas. There are sufficient CNG stations all over the country to meet car owners' needs," he said.
"Relying on cars, which run on compressed natural gas, is not only economically viable but also environmentally friendly."
Fuel Cards Not Efficient Anymore
Kazemi believes now that gasoline is offered at a single price of 10,000 rials (30 cents) for car owners nationwide without a quota, smart cards should be scrapped since they only waste people’s time.
He said the fuel cards issued in 2007, which allocated a gasoline quota at subsidized prices to private vehicles and motorbikes to curb consumption and cut heavy energy subsidies, worked at that time.
"However, now that fuel prices are unified and there is no gasoline subsidy, subscribers are not inclined to use fuel cards and many use station owners’ instead.
Seyyed Nasser Sajjadi, managing director of NIORDC, has recently announced that maintaining the present system of gasoline distribution will not yield any positive result.
Sajjadi noted that following the unification of gasoline prices, the consumption growth rate has been curbed.
"In the past 11-month period, it has only increased by less than 2% compared with the corresponding period of last year," he said.
Oil Minister Bijan Namdar Zanganeh has also categorically supported halting the use of gasoline fuel cards, saying that they are of no use now that prices have been unified and data obtained from fuel card is not used for any purpose.
Zanganeh believes that maintaining the present system only incurs maintenance costs, according to the Persian daily Hamshahri. Opponents, however, say scrapping fuel cards is a big mistake, as it damages distribution transparency.
They propose the fuel cards be revived to impose higher taxes on fuel-intensive subscribers or lower gasoline quota for dilapidated cars.
