TEHRAN – Some 71,000 tons of liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) was offered at the international ring of Iran Energy Exchange (IRENEX) on Monday of which over 62,000 tons was sold to foreign buyers, IRNA reported.

The LPG was offered in six different batches, each batch from a specific refinery and with a certain base price ranging from $245 per ton up to $263 per ton. 

The total value of the offered cargoes reached nearly $16.5 million which is mostly exported to the neighboring countries including Afghanistan and Pakistan.

Since the U.S.’s withdrew from Iran’s nuclear pact in May 2018, vowing to drive Iran's oil exports down to zero, the Islamic Republic has been taking various measures to counter U.S. actions and to lessen its economy’s reliance on oil.

In the past few years, Iranian think-tanks and energy experts have been repeatedly stating that the country should increase its refining capacity in order to lessen the economy’s reliance on crude sales. In this regard, one of the main strategies of the National Iranian Oil Company in recent years has been focusing on the country’s refineries.

NIOC has been offering various grades of crude oil and oil products almost every week, since the beginning of the current Iranian calendar year.  

In early August, National Iranian Oil Products Distribution Company (NIOPDC) offered 18,000 tons of 95 octane gasoline produced in Iran’s Persian Gulf Star Refinery (PGSR) at IRENEX, of which 5,000 tons were sold to be exported to Afghanistan, Armenia, and Iraqi Kurdistan.

Later that month, NIOPDC also offered 10,000 tons of gasoline produced in Iran’s Persian Gulf Star Refinery (PGSR) at the international ring of IRENEX.

EF/MA