41 Billion Liters of Fuel Consumed in Iran in the First Half of This Year

The latest statistics released by the National Iranian Oil Products Distribution Company indicate that 41 billion liters of fuel were consumed in Iran in the first half of this year, with gasoline consumption increasing compared to the same period last year. According to the Islamic Republic News Agency (IRNA), Mansour Riahi, the deputy of the National Iranian Oil Products Distribution Company, stated on Wednesday, September 23, that in the first half of this year, 41 billion liters of LPG and CNG were distributed and consumed in the country. Riahi mentioned that the average gasoline consumption in Iran over the past six months has been more than 72 million liters per day, which is an increase of over three percent compared to the same period last year. Additionally, based on this data, from the beginning of Farvardin (March 21) until the end of Shahrivar (September 21), an average of more than 80 million liters of diesel has been consumed daily, which represents a decrease of about 16 percent compared to the same period last year. On Wednesday, Riahi also discussed the remaining subsidized gasoline priced at 700 tomans on people's fuel cards, stating that by the end of September, there were still 580 million liters of this subsidized gasoline left, which must be consumed by the end of Aban (November). The Iranian government has long allocated part of its budget to subsidize the import of this oil product to meet the increasing demand for gasoline in the country, while some of this imported gasoline is smuggled to neighboring countries due to its low price. In this regard, Ahmad Alavi, an economist residing in Sweden, previously stated in an interview with Radio Farda that the low price of oil derivatives, which are considered subsidized goods, has encouraged and intensified the smuggling of these goods out of the country. Furthermore, according to official information released, the share of natural gas in Iran's energy mix, referred to as 'blue fuel' or 'clean fossil fuel,' has significantly increased over the past decade, reaching 70 percent. To clarify, Iran's gas consumption, according to official Iranian reports and statistics from the U.S. Energy Information Administration, is 180 billion cubic meters annually, equivalent to 1 billion 132 million barrels of crude oil.