TEHRAN - Average daily gasoline consumption in Tehran fell to 14.8 million liters in the current Iranian calendar month of Dey (started on December 22) from 16.6 in the past year’s same month to register an 11 percent fall year-on-year, IRNA reported.

According to the data released by the National Iranian Oil Refining and Distribution Company (NIORDC) following the implementation of the rationing scheme, daily gasoline consumption in the country has also fallen to 75 million liters from an average of 95 million liters last year.

Last week, the managing director of National Iranian Oil Products Distribution Company (NIOPDC) Amir Vakilzadeh said the average daily consumption of gasoline in the last Iranian calendar month of Azar (November 22-December 21) reached 75.5 million liters, a decrease of 15.9 percent compared to 89.8 million liters in the same period last year.

Reducing the consumption of gasoline and gasoil and replacing them with natural gas is one of the government's main goals for implementing the rationing scheme which will ultimately result in preserving the country's wealth and the environment.

Iranian Oil Minister Bijan Namdar Zanganeh had earlier pointed to curbing consumption and increasing export capacity as the most important goals of the gasoline rationing plan.

In mid-November, The Iranian government started rationing of subsidized gasoline and increased fuel prices as part of a plan to reduce the energy subsides to use the revenue for supporting underprivileged families.

Later that month, deputy finance and economic affairs minister said the fuel rationing plan would make the country able to export 3.65 billion liters of gasoline every year and earn about 14 trillion rials (about $3.3 billion) from the exports.

“On average, 100 million liters of gasoline is produced in the country on a daily basis. If we could reduce fuel consumption by 10 million liters and sell it to other Persian Gulf neighbors, we would export about four billion rials (about $952,000) a day, that would be 14 trillion rials a year,” Mohammad-Ali Dehghan Dehnavi told ILNA.

EF/MA