1.3m Tons of Petroleum Exports by Land in 4 Years

More than 1.3 million tons of petroleum products have been exported to neighboring states through land borders over the last four years, deputy for exports and imports at the National Iranian Oil Products Distribution Company said.

That is equal to 1.3 billion kilograms and roughly the same in liter. "Oil derivates like diesel, kerosene, jet fuel and liquefied natural gas, including LNG and LPG, have been transferred to Iraq, Pakistan, Afghanistan and Armenia via land borders by tanker trucks," Alireza Rajabpour was also quoted as saying by ISNA on Wednesday.

Pointing to the value of oil byproducts' exports in the fiscal 2015-16, Rajabpour said, "Close to $9.1 million worth of fuels were exported in the period through land borders."

According to the official, NIOPDC has sold 10.3 million tons of mazut and diesel via bunkering facilities in the Persian Gulf since 2013. Asked about swapping oil derivatives from 2013 to 2015, he noted that Iran imported 420,000 tons of liquefied natural gas, mazut and diesel from northern oil terminals in Neka and Anzali from Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan and Russia and the same equivalent was exported from southern terminals.

Highlighting NIOPDC's policy to reduce export costs, he said that with regard to the pipelines and other infrastructure such as oil storage facilitates, the closer the storage units to border areas, the lesser will be the expense for exports, which in turn will help curb fuel smuggling. "Iran has become an exporter of oil byproducts after years of import," he said, adding that the export of LPG has risen to between 1,000 and 1,500 tons a day. According to Rajabpour, mazut and diesel are also exported by ships to international markets and the responsibility does not lie with NIOPDC.