The National Iranian Oil Refining and Distribution Company, a subsidiary of the National Iranian Oil Company, sold 8.5 million tons of oil derivatives in 2020, of which 7 million tons were gasoline.
Based on data issued by NIORDC, gasoline accounted for 82.5% of all petroleum products last year, IRNA reported.
The company generated close to $6 billion selling oil derivatives (excluding petrochemicals) in the one-year period.
NIORDC produced 110 million liters of gasoline per day in 2020, of which 74 million liters were burnt by motorists per day, giving this chance to the company to export the surplus (36 ml/d) to Afghanistan, Iraq, Pakistan, the UAE, Singapore, Uzbekistan and Armenia.
Nonetheless, last year’s uptrend in export has reversed as daily gasoline consumption in the first five months of the current fiscal year (March 21-Aug. 22) reached 100 million liters, which has left no room for exports.
According to Hamid Hosseini, a member of Iran-Iraq Chamber of Commerce’s board of directors, daily consumption in March-April was about 85 million liters, up 38 million liters compared with the same period of 2019 while daily demand in June-August surpassed 90 million liters, showing a rise of 30% year-on-year.
Referring to other factors contributing to the export downtrend, Hosseini said some refineries are being overhauled and this has affected output adversely.
The Oil Ministry started offering oil products, namely gasoline and diesel, on the Iran Energy Exchange in 2019 after the initiative to sell crude oil on the bourse flopped.
Each liter of gasoline is sold at 6 cents in Iran and the same amount of fuel costs 100 cents in Afghanistan.
With regard to diesel export, Hosseini said NIOC was unable to fulfill its commitment last year as natural gas consumption soared in the household sector and thermal power plant had to consume a substantial amount of diesel.
“The same scenario is predicted to happen this year, so filling power plants’ diesel inventories should have priority over exports,” he added.
Diesel, kerosene, jet fuel and liquefied natural gas are exported to Iraq, Pakistan, Afghanistan and Armenia via land borders.
Pointing to the annual value of exports, the official said, "Close to $20 billion worth of petrochemicals, petroleum products, natural gas and power are sold to the four neighbors."
Giving a breakdown, Hosseini said that of the total, $12 billion were earned from petrochemicals and $8 billion pertained to petroleum byproducts, electricity and natural gas.
