TEHRAN- Managing director of National Iranian Oil Refining and Distribution Company (NIORDC) put the daily consumption of compressed natural gas (CNG) at 800 million cubic meters in Iran, complaining that it is a high amount, IRNA reported.

Making the remarks in a national conference titled “CNG, Opportunity for Sustainable Development” on Sunday, Alireza Sadeqabadi said that energy consumption is high and uncontrolled in all household, industrial, transportation, power plant, and commercial sectors of the country.

The official further announced that about 1.5 million public transportation vehicles will become dual-fuel in the country by the next 12-15 months.

Last week, head of National Iranian Oil Products Distribution Company (NIOPDC) said since the implementation of the gasoline rationing scheme and the increase in the prices, people are leaning more toward dual-fuel cars.

“The demand for converting single-fuel cars into dual-fuel ones has also grown due to the rationing and rising gasoline prices,” Amir Vakilzadeh said in an interview with the state TV on Sunday night.

According to the official, since the implementation of the rationing program in mid-November, over 70,000 people have registered their cars for dual-fuel conversion.

“Fortunately, in the past two years we have been preparing the infrastructure needed to implement such a program and, using our previous experiences, we have designed a system for this purpose,” Vakilzadeh said.

In the conversion program, we determine which vehicles are allowed to register so that they could obtain a certificate and get the traffic police approval for conversion into dual-fuel cars, he explained.

In late November, the head of NIOPDC’s CNG promotion program said CNG consumption in the country increased by 10 percent since the implementation of the gasoline rationing scheme.

The Iranian government started, On November 13, rationing of subsidized gasoline and increased fuel prices as it plans to use the revenue for supporting underprivileged families.

MA/MA