TEHRAN – Deputy Director of National Iranian Oil Products Distribution Company (NIOPDC) says 36,000 vehicles of the country’s public transportation fleet are planned to become dual-fuel by the end of the current Iranian calendar year (March 19).

According to Hamid Ghasemi, the mentioned vehicles will be converted as part of a government program for converting over 1.46 million public vehicles into dual-fuel ones within the next 15 months, IRNA reported.

The program which includes converting a variety of public vehicles like vans, trucks, and buses, was officially launched on Monday.

In early December 2019, NIORDC signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with state-owned automaker Iran Khodro Company (IKCO) to add new dual-fuel vehicles to the country’s public transportation fleet.

Based on the mentioned MOU, the two sides agreed to cooperate in converting or manufacturing 1.46 million dual-fuel vehicles to be added to the public transportation fleet.

The program is expected to reduce the country’s daily gasoline consumption by 10 million liters and save the government 200 trillion rials (about $4.7 billion).

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.

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/