The goal has been to reduce the use of gasoline, much of which has long had to be imported. The shift to CNG went very slowly for years since there simply were not enough CNG stations in the cities to avoid having to drive miles for a fill ‘er up. Now there are more CNG stations and the National Iranian Oil Products Distribution Co. has announced that more than one fourth of the mileage driven in Iran is now powered by CNG. At the same time, the government has invested huge sums to build new refineries and modernize old ones to produce more gasoline. Between the CNG expansion and the refinery expansion, Iran could well see itself oversupplied with vehicle fuels.
