TEHRAN - Head of National Iranian Oil Refining and Distribution Company (NIORDC) said the country’s average daily gasoline consumption has stood at 86 million liters in the current Iranian calendar year (ends on March 20).

Jalil Salari put the country’s current gasoline production at about 104 million liters per day, IRNA reported on Sunday.

He noted that his company has stored the necessary gasoline to meet the peak demand during the Nowruz holiday (Iranian new year) season and there would be no problem in this regard.

Having the production capacity of nearly 120 million liters per day of gasoline, Iran currently has also the capacity to store three billion liters of the strategic fuel.

Although the Islamic Republic is currently self-sufficient in gasoline production, fluctuations in consumption at different periods through the year have led to the creation of storage facilities across the country to manage the sustainable supply and distribution of gasoline.

These tanks will help the country’s refineries continue operating at full capacity if on certain days of the year (such as the Nowruz holidays) gasoline consumption reduces significantly, and also prevent any interruption in the supply of the fuel if consumption increases drastically.

In this regard, the capacity of the country’s gasoline storage facilities has increased in recent years, so much so that according to the National Iranian Oil Products Refining and Distribution Company, the volume of gasoline storage has increased from 1.8 billion liters to more than three billion liters.

According to the former NIORDC Managing Director Alireza Sadeq-Abadi, Iran is currently the biggest producer and exporter of gasoline in West Asia.

The country has achieved this success despite the external pressures and hurdles imposed by the U.S. sanctions on its oil industry.

The significant increase in the country’s gasoline production and exports came despite the fact that nearly two years ago Iran was an importer of the strategic product, shipping in 17 million liters per day of gasoline.

“In [the Iranian calendar year] 1396 (ended on March 20, 2018), the production of gasoline in our country was 59 million liters per day; the figure reached 107 million liters per day last year, and today the country’s gasoline production capacity is between 107 to 120 million liters per day,” Sadeq-Abadi said.

EF/MA