TEHRAN (PIN) – Minister of petroleum announced that gasoline rationing plan has been successful and problems have been minimized through people’s cooperation.

The plan was implemented in cooperation with Interior Ministry, Islamic Republic of Iran Police, and Post Company and has been successful thus far, said Seyyed Kazem Vaziri-Hamaneh.
The minister stated that that the money saved through gasoline rationing will be spent in other infrastructural sectors including building refineries, developing rail transportation inside and outside cities, and insuring the unemployed.
“It has been proposed to the government through a letter that 2,000 billion dollars should be allocated to oil industry per year to be used for completion of underway refinery projects within the next three years,” he said.
Vaziri-Hamaneh noted that a daily average amount of 20 million liters of gasoline has been saved through rationing and if the projected consumption rise is added to the said figure, overall saving would amount to 25 million liters.
“If price of every liter of gasoline is considered 0.5 dollars, average saving through rationing would amount to 10 million dollars, which can be used to build power plants and carry out other economic projects,” he said.
The official stated that the current year’s Budge Act has appropriated 2.5 billion dollars to gasoline imports.
He opined that since accurate projection of domestic gasoline consumption during the current year is not possible, a decision on gasoline imports during the second half of the year would depend on the study of gasoline consumption trend, gasoline saved through rationing, and domestic production. “Therefore, such a decision will be most probably made in the next one or two months.”
Asked about possible rationing of diesel fuel, the minister noted that diesel consumption in the country is rising and the country will have to import more diesel fuel next year.
“In view of underway projects for building refineries, production of diesel fuel will increase from the current figure of 80 million liters per day to about 165 million liters per day in the next three years,” he said.
“We are facing no problem for diesel fuel supply, but we are planning to dispense it to diesel-powered vehicles through smart cards to prevent wastage of diesel fuel,” he noted.
Vaziri-Hamaneh said rationing natural gas in the country is not possible and there is no reason to do that.
The minister added that increasing price of natural gas in increments is the best way to control its consumption