26 May 2013
Managing Director of National Iranian Oil Refining and Distribution Company (NIORDC) Alireza Zeighami said the company's initiatives will save the country $15 billion this year.
"If measures like enforcing targeted subsidies, rationing gasoline and deploying smart cards had not come into force, the country would have imported as much as $15 billion worth of gasoline in the current Iranian year," he said.
Zeighami added that in 2006, daily gasoline consumption stood at 74 million liters and the country paid $5 billion for gasoline imports, Fars News Agency reported.
"Those measures reduced daily gasoline consumption to 62 million liters per day despite the rising number of vehicles," he said.
"Besides enforcing initiatives for curbing gasoline consumption, some development plans were implemented in oil refineries to boost the quality and quantity of products that increased gasoline production."
The NIORDC chief noted that at present, gasoline production is satisfactory and by the end of this year (March 2014), the country will not need to mobilize petrochemical complexes for meeting its gasoline needs.
According to Zeighami, most oil refineries of the country have aged and required upgrading in the past 30 years, which process only started six years ago.
During the three past years daily gasoline consumption hit respectively 55, 59.5 and 63 million liters indicating the ineffectiveness of price mechanisms on consumption of oil products, the official noted.
Referring to implementation of development plans in 7 oil refineries out of nine domestic refineries of the country, Zeighami said, "In order to generate value added, it is necessary those factors having an impact on management of fuel consumption to be reinforced."
Managing Director of National Iranian Oil Refining and Distribution Company (NIORDC) Alireza Zeighami said the company's initiatives will save the country $15 billion this year.
"If measures like enforcing targeted subsidies, rationing gasoline and deploying smart cards had not come into force, the country would have imported as much as $15 billion worth of gasoline in the current Iranian year," he said.
Zeighami added that in 2006, daily gasoline consumption stood at 74 million liters and the country paid $5 billion for gasoline imports, Fars News Agency reported.
"Those measures reduced daily gasoline consumption to 62 million liters per day despite the rising number of vehicles," he said.
"Besides enforcing initiatives for curbing gasoline consumption, some development plans were implemented in oil refineries to boost the quality and quantity of products that increased gasoline production."
The NIORDC chief noted that at present, gasoline production is satisfactory and by the end of this year (March 2014), the country will not need to mobilize petrochemical complexes for meeting its gasoline needs.
According to Zeighami, most oil refineries of the country have aged and required upgrading in the past 30 years, which process only started six years ago.
During the three past years daily gasoline consumption hit respectively 55, 59.5 and 63 million liters indicating the ineffectiveness of price mechanisms on consumption of oil products, the official noted.
Referring to implementation of development plans in 7 oil refineries out of nine domestic refineries of the country, Zeighami said, "In order to generate value added, it is necessary those factors having an impact on management of fuel consumption to be reinforced."
© Iran Daily 2013
