Twelve-Month Gasoline Import Budget Spent in Six Months
While official reports speak that gasoline and diesel consumption in Iran rose last week in comparison previous weeks, the deputy oil minister of Ahmadinejad’s administration announced that the allocated budget for this year’s gasoline imports had been consumed, and that the government was paying for imported gasoline through a temporary measure that provides funds from the domestic resources of Iran’s national oil company authorized by the care-taker at the ministry of oil.
Since the gas rationing scheme was introduced in late June, 2007, officials of Ahmadinejad’s administration have been claiming that consumption has gone done. But last Friday, ayatollah Khamenei, the leader of Iran called on the public to refrain from over-consumption of gasoline. He had warned earlier that the continuation of consumption at their levels could make the economic sanctions of the country’s enemies a successful venture.
Mohammad Reza-Nematzadeh, a deputy at the national oil company and head of its refinery and distribution (oil) organization too had announced earlier that the budget to import gasoline had been completely consumed for the current year. While the current fiscal year by the Iranian calendar still has over 5 months left, Nematzadeh said, “In view of the complete consumption of the $2.5 billion gasoline import budget, gasoline imports are currently paid through a domestic fund of the oil company. The caretaker of the ministry of oil had issued a temporary authorization for this measure.”
Prior to the implementation of the rationing scheme Ahmadinejad’s administration had announced that with the realization of the plan there would no longer be a need to import gasoline from outside the country. According to the deputy oil minister 14 to 15 million liters of gasoline are currently imported by Iran. Official statistics, on the other hand, continue to show figures that indicate a reduction in domestic consumption of gasoline. Non-official figures however indicate a rise in consumption of gasoline and diesel fuel. Domestic news agencies too have published some official documents indicating that oil consumption is on the rise. Last week, for example gasoline consumption was about 4.6 percent higher than the previous week, while diesel fuel was up by about 11.1 percent. Total consumption during the week peaked at 400 million liters, while it stood at 374.5 million liters the preceding week. Diesel fuel too crossed the 100 million liter ceiling last week, whose growth was even higher than the rise in gasoline consumption.
On the occasion of Eid-Fetr celebrations, ayatollah Khamenei had said, “It is shameful that an oil exporting country has to import gasoline from outside.” Ahmadinejad’s administration and the Iranian parliament took presented a similar reasoning for their gasoline rationing scheme, but made no or little efforts to prepare the country for the change, by either increasing domestic production, or initiating other structural changes. So while statistics presented by the oil industry portray the image that consumption has fallen, other figures provided by the ministry of economy and finance indicate a worsening of the oil import picture, particularly in the gasoline and diesel fuel sectors.