TEHRAN – Iran doesn’t have any problems regarding production and supply of gasoline and gasoil despite the U.S. sanctions, Press TV reported, quoting an official with the oil ministry as saying on Wednesday.

“This year we have no worry and concern at all about production and supply of fuel in the country and stocks are in very ideal conditions,” said Alireza Sadeq-Abadi, the managing director of National Iranian Oil Refining and Distribution Company (NIORDC).

Sadegh-Abadi, a deputy oil minister, said Iran’s gasoline production had already exceeded 110,000 liters per day, adding that some 2.2 million barrels of fuel are also supplied to refineries across the country each day.

“This is a great achievement at the time of the economic war,” said the official, making a reference to Iran’s struggle to cope with the impacts of U.S. sanctions on the oil and gas industry.

Iran has seen its official oil exports decline as a result of sanctions although officials insist they would continue to sell oil through unconventional channels.

Iran increases its oil and condensate refining capacity by nearly 40 percent in two years.

The country’s oil and gas production has increased since the sanctions began in November as the government seeks to respond to a growing domestic demand for energy.

The refining industry has largely benefitted from the sanctions as the capacity for turning crude into other products has increased by nearly 40 percent in the past two years.

Sadeq-Abadi said last month that the total operating capacity of Iran’s refineries had increased from 1,550,000 to 2,150,000 barrels per day in the two-year period ending in May 2019.

The NIORDC chief said plans were in place to further expand the refining sector and bring the total capacity of the refineries across the country to 2,400,000 bpd at the end of the current Iranian calendar year in March.

EF/MA