TEHRAN - National Iranian Oil Products Distribution Company (NIOPDC) has announced his company’s readiness for meeting the gasoline demand during the Iranian new year holidays, Shana reported on Saturday.

“We expect that the traffic during the Nowruz holiday this year will be much higher than in previous years, and the trend of gasoline consumption on Nowruz will be on the rise,” Keramat Veis-Karami said.

According to the official, the country's gasoline consumption in the current Iranian calendar year (ends on March 20) has increased by about 16 percent compared to the previous year, and the figure will increase even further toward the last days of the year.

Planning has been done for the proper storage of the strategic fuel in the country's oil storage facilities for the supply during Nowruz, and as of February 20, supervision operations will begin at various distribution stations.

Earlier this month, Head of National Iranian Oil Refining and Distribution Company (NIORDC) Jalil Salari said the country’s average daily gasoline consumption has stood at 86 million liters in the current Iranian calendar year.

Salari put the country’s current average gasoline production at about 104 million liters per day.

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.

EF/MA