TEHRAN – Iran has managed to save over 370 million liters of gasoline over the past two years by turning 213,000 public transport vehicles into dual-fuel cars, according to the head of the National Iranian Oil Products Distribution Company (NIOPDC).

“Converting gasoline-fueled public transport cars into gas-powered ones has been one of the tasks of National Iranian Oil Products Distribution Company in recent years, and by converting 213,000 public transport vehicles so far, 370 million liters of gasoline have been saved and the country has earned $126 million in revenue,” Shana quoted Ali-Akbar Nejad-Ali as saying on Sunday.

Speaking at the inauguration ceremony of some infrastructure projects in Tehran, Nejad-Ali said that the realization of NIOPDC’s development projects is dependent on the development of electronic governance.

“Based on the resolution of the Supreme Council of Information Technology, which was notified to all executive bodies in 2019, the executive bodies must put the development of electronic government on their agenda, and fortunately, in this regard, very positive and forward-looking actions have been taken over the last two years,” he said.

According to the official, NIOPDC has it on the agenda to turn 1.206 million public vehicles into dual-fuel cars by the Iranian calendar year 1405 (begins in March 2026).

He announced the signing of contracts with 330 workshops across the country to convert gasoline-fueled cars into dual-fuel ones.

Despite having abundant natural gas resources, the Islamic Republic is also one of the world’s leading gasoline consumer countries, and a great part of the country’s 100-million-liter gasoline output is used inside the country, while the exports of the mentioned fuel can be an excellent source of income for the country and less gasoline consumption would also mean less air pollution and a cleaner environment.

Tackling this issue, the Iranian government has been promoting the use of Compressed Natural Gas (CNG) as a replacement for gasoline over the past few years and has declared CNG the country’s national fuel.

Following the above-mentioned declaration, in December 2019, the National Iranian Oil Refining and Distribution Company (NIORDC) and Iran’s state-owned Iran Khodro Company (IKCO) signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) to add new dual-fuel vehicles to the country’s public transportation fleet.

The mentioned MOU was signed following a resolution by the Government Economic Council that targeted adding 1.46 million dual-fuel vehicles to the public transportation fleet.

EF/MA