Iran stops gasoline purchase orders

[Pasban]

Iran has halted placing orders for gasoline purchase from abroad as it has begun increasing its domestic production, Oil Minister Masoud Mirkazemi says.

Mirkazemi said that Iran will soon increase its gasoline output by one million liters per day, Mehr News Agency reported.

He said Iran began gasoline production in six of its petrochemical units one month ago.

"We have not placed an order for the purchase of gasoline for one month. The country's gasoline current gasoline production has increased to 66.5 million liters per day from the previous 44 million liters per day," Mirkazemi added.

He underlined that the Iranian government is not concerned about a shortage of gasoline.

The minister says gasoline imports are simply to boost the country's strategic reserves.

The UN Security Council imposed a fourth round of sanctions on Iran over its nuclear program in June.

Following the June 9 US-engineered UN Security Council sanctions, the US, the EU and a number of other countries took unilateral measures against Iran over its nuclear program.

Tehran has repeatedly stressed that its nuclear program is civilian in nature, adding that as a signatory to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty and a member of the International Atomic Energy Agency it has the right to use nuclear technology for peaceful purposes.

Iran stops gasoline purchase orders

 

[Pasban]

This is by far amongst the best news that I have witnessed to come out of Iran in recent times, the fact that there will not be further gasoline imports in Iran. Gasoline imports have been decreasing ever since 2007, there is a theory that Iran was in fact importing so much in the 2004/5-2007/8 period because of the heightened tensions with the US that they were not importing because the country needed that much gasoline but because the government wanted a significant gasoline inventory for in case a war started. However, it is even more important to have the senseless consumption decreased-- I have not witnessed so much waste of gasoline as in Iran.