TEHRAN - Spokesman of Iranian Oil, Gas and Petrochemical Products Exporters Union (OPEX) said the gasoline rationing scheme has made it possible for the country to export 25-30 million liters of gasoline every day, IRIB reported.

Stressing the fact that exports of oil products to the neighbors like Iraq continues despite the unrests, Hamid Hosseini noted that exporting the mentioned amounts of gasoline could bring the country up to $4 billion of revenue.

He noted that currently two groups of oil products namely “special products” such as bitumen, paraffin and base oil, and “specific products” including gasoline, diesel and fuel oil are being exported to other countries, adding that after the implementation of the plan for offering oil products at the stock exchange, exports of such products to the neighboring countries have been welcomed by foreign buyers.

“Currently we produce 115 million liters of gasoline per day, of which 60 to 65 million liters are provided as subsidized fuel and another 20 million liters are sold in the free market, so we will have about 30 million liters of surplus gasoline that can be exported,” Hosseini said.

He noted that exporting oil products does not have the problem of exporting crude oil, adding that exports to neighboring countries are easier because they are done via land borders, and our buyers are usually the private sector, which is not affected by the U.S. sanctions. 

Back in November, deputy finance and economic affairs minister said the fuel rationing plan would make the country able to export 3.65 billion liters of gasoline every year and earn about 14 trillion rials (about $3.3 billion) from the exports.

“On average, 100 million liters of gasoline is produced in the country on a daily basis. If we could reduce fuel consumption by 10 million liters and sell it to other Persian Gulf neighbors, we would export about four billion rials (about $952,000) a day….that would be 14 trillion rials a year,” Mohammad-Ali Dehghan Dehnavi told ILNA.

In mid-November, The Iranian government started rationing of subsidized gasoline and increased fuel prices as part of a plan to reduce the energy subsides to use the revenue for supporting underprivileged families.

EF/MA