Nasser Sudani, vice chairman of the Majlis Energy Committee, said the Oil Ministry had decided to import gasoline due to the low quality of domestically produce gasoline.
“Locally-made gasoline has a low octane level,” Sudani said. It will be mixed with imported fuel to reach a higher-octane level suitable for Iranian cars.
Sudani did not say how much fuel would be imported. Nor did he give the octane level of locally refined gasoline. He also did not say how long the Oil Ministry had tolerated the low octane levels—which can damage car engines—before deciding to import higher-octane gasoline.
However, he said the need for imports was mandated in part by an explosion May 23 at the Abadan refinery, which he said had reduced gasoline production. That explosion was 90 days before Sudani spoke. No officials had previously acknowledged any loss of gasoline production capacity as a result of that explosion, which occurred the very day President Ahmadi-nejad was visiting the refinery.
Sudani said the need for imports would “probably” end by Now Ruz, which is seven months away.
In the 24 hours after Sudani spoke out, the Oil Ministry said nothing, neither denying nor confirming what Sudani said. If Sudani misspoke, it was thought likely the Oil Ministry would have spoken out quickly since the issue of gasoline imports is a highly charged one tied to poor relations with Washington.
Last September, then-Oil Minister Masud Mir-Kazemi announced that Iran had achieved self-sufficiency in gasoline production. The announcement came just after President Obama signed into law a new sanctions law that threatened to punish foreign firms that sold refined oil products to Iran. Such firms quickly lined up at the microphone to announce they were ending such sales. US congressmen pushing the sanctions law had argued it would bring the Islamic Republic to its needs because the regime was dependent on gasoline imports. That made it crucial for the regime to show it could put enough gasoline on the market to prove the Americans wrong.
Later, Tehran announced that it had been making gasoline at six petrochemical plants that had been converted to gasoline production. In January, officials said that production had ended since gasoline consumption dropped once prices were hiked in December as part of the end of fuel subsidies.
In June, the International Oil Daily reported that despite Iran’s claims to be producing all the gasoline it needs, Iran was actually importing about 8.5 million liters a day or about 15 percent of its gasoline needs. Iran has remained silent about that story.
For years, Iran imported about one-third of its needs or an average of 22 million liters a day out of 66 million liters consumed.
Since prices were jacked up last December, consumption has fallen, albeit nowhere near as much as Iranian officials expected. Since December, consumption has averaged 58 million liters a day, according to published official statistics.
Imports of 8.5 million liters a day would amount to 15 percent of that consumption.
