TEHRAN - Head of National Iranian Oil Refining and Distribution Company (NIORDC) Jalil Salari said following the implementation of the Oil Ministry’s recent consumption management programs, fuel consumption in the country is expected to be reduced by 10 percent by the end of the current Iranian year (late March 2025), Shana reported.

“Considering the infrastructure created in the consumption management sector, by the end of this year, we will see a decrease of 10 million liters of fuel consumption in the country,” Salari said.

According to the official, the country’s fuel consumption which stood at 32 billion liters in the Iranian calendar year 1400 (March 2021-March 2022) has surged to 46 billion liters in the current year, and serious measures should be taken to stop the upward trend.

Stating that the Oil Ministry is the government’s top entity in terms of supporting knowledge-based companies, he said: “In the consumption management department, a mapping system has been established for the urban and suburban transportations; launching this system will reduce the daily fuel consumption by five to seven million liters.”

Over the past few years, the Islamic Republic has managed to not only become self-sufficient in gasoline production but also become a net exporter of the strategic fuel, however, the significant increase in domestic gasoline consumption in the past two years has once again raised concerns about the need for imports.

Iran became a net gasoline exporter in February 2019, after the inauguration of the third phase of the Persian Gulf Star Refinery (PGS) project which added 120,000 barrels to the country’s daily gasoline production.

As previously announced by Salari, the average daily gasoline consumption in Iran rose 11 percent in the past Iranian calendar year 1402 (ended on March 19).

The official said that the country’s average daily gasoline production has reached 115 million liters.

He added: "Unfortunately, gasoline consumption is rising exponentially in the country, as we had a 20 percent increase in gasoline consumption in 1401, while last year we had an 11 percent rise, and without a doubt, special attention should be paid to fuel consumption management."

There are now over 30 million cars in the country, and the number is rising, and on the other hand, the amount of fuel consumption in the country is far from world standards, and cars are high-consuming, which should be taken into consideration, the official added.

The NIORDC managing director further explained that the annual entry of one million cars into the country's transportation fleet is equivalent to one billion liters of gasoline consumption, and this requires the construction of a refinery with a daily refining capacity of 150,000 to 200,000 barrels, which takes at least four to five years.

EF/MA