The Iranian regime plans to increase it gasoline imports by March 2015, a senior Iranian oil official said on Thursday, as the country has stopped using domestic petrochemical plants to produce the fuel.
“Iran’s fuel imports will surely increase this (Iranian) year,” said the senior official, who asked not to be named, Reuters reported.
The Iranian year started on March 21.
The official refused to reveal the amount but media reports suggest that the import of gasoline will be around 11 million litres per year.
Iran lacks refining capacity forcing it to import 40 percent of its domestic gasoline demand.
The air pollution in Tehran is blamed on the use of domestically produced low quality gasoline. A number of cities in Iran are considered to be the world’s highest polluted cities.
Experts say domestic gasoline creates more pollution than standard gasoline.
Iranian motorists now pay only around 7,000 rials for gasoline, equivalent to $0.28 (17 pence) a litre at the central bank’s official exchange rate, or $1.27 a gallon.
With increase in import of gasoline the fuel prices will rise.
Earlier, when gas prices were raised and rations imposed in 2007, protesters set fire to more than a dozen gas stations. The last time fuel subsidies were cut, in 2010, gasoline prices nearly quadrupled in Tehran.”
