TEHRAN – Iran’s Mellat Bank has signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with the National Iranian Oil Refining and Distribution Company (NIORDC) to allocate 65 trillion rials (about $1.54 billion) for manufacturing dual-fuel vehicles for the country’s public transportation fleet, IRNA reported.

The MOU was signed by the Managing Director of the National Iranian Oil Products Distribution Company (NIOPDC) Amir Vakilzadeh and Managing Director of Mellat Bank Mohammad Bigdeli on Sunday in Tehran.

The signing ceremony was attended by senior officials including the Oil Minister Bijan Namdar Zanganeh, the Head of Institute of Standards and Industrial Research of Iran (ISIRI) Nayereh Pirouzbakht and NIORDC Head Alireza Sadeqabadi.

Based on the MOU the bank will fund the project to add 1.46 million dual-fuel vehicles to the country’s public transportation fleet.

Last week, NIORDC and Iran’s state-owned Iran Khodro Company (IKCO) signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) to co-manufacture dual-fuel vehicles for the country’s public transportation fleet.

Implementation of the mentioned MOU is going to reduce the country’s daily gasoline consumption by 10 million liters and save the government 200 trillion rials (about $4.7 billion) every year.

Iran has recently started a program for the rationing of subsidized gasoline and increased fuel prices to reduce the energy subsidies and to use the revenue for supporting underprivileged families.

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

Currently, Iran is exporting two groups of oil products namely “special products” such as bitumen, paraffin and base oil, and “specific products” including gasoline, diesel and fuel oil to other countries.

Iran produces 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, the rest which is about 30 million liters is exported.

EF/MA

Photo: Managing Director of Mellat Bank Mohammad Bigdeli (R) and Managing Director of National Iranian oil products Distribution Company (NIOPDC) Amir Vakilzadeh sign a memorandum of understanding for manufacturing dual-fuel cars, on Sunday in Tehran.