Iran will be regular gasoline exporter next year, Qasemi says
Economic Desk
On Line: 03 February 2013 15:41
In Print: Monday 04 February 2013
Iran plans to become a regular gasoline exporting nation within
months, despite sanctions against the country, Iranian Oil Minister
Rostam Qasemi said.
`The progress made in the oil industry has allowed us to leave behind
the road of sanctions,’ Qasemi was quoted as saying during the
inauguration ceremony last week of a new gasoline-producing unit at
the Abadan refinery, the oil ministry’s news website, Shana, said.
`With the coming on stream of this unit, Iran no longer needs to
import gasoline and will be among the exporters of gasoline,’ by the
next Iranian year starting on March 21 or the following Iranian year
at the latest, Qasemi said.
Iran boosted the refinery’s fuel output capacity by 2 million liters a
day to 6 million liters, state television said on Jan. 31.
Iran, one of the main producers of the Organization of Petroleum
Exporting Countries, formerly relied on imported gasoline to meet as
much as 40 percent of its needs as it lacked sufficient refining
capacity. The U.S. tightened its sanctions against Iran, over the
country’s civilian nuclear program, in 2010 to target foreign
suppliers of gasoline.
Iran has exported Iranian-made gasoline in recent months to the U.A.E,
Afghanistan, Iraq and Armenia, the state-run Mehr news agency reported
in June 2012.
(Source: Bloomberg)