Iran to increase transit of oil products: NIORDC head
The managing director of the National Iranian Oil Refining and Distribution Company (NIORDC) says the country plans to transit more gasoline and gas oil to Iraq and Afghanistan.
“The market for gasoline and gas oil is such that we currently have no need for swapping, but we can activate the transit of these two products to Afghanistan and Iraq via Iran,” Ali Reza Zeighami said.
Zeighami added that the Iranian private sector currently handles all the transit operations of gasoline and gas oil in the country without any involvement by the Oil Ministry.
Due to the lack of refineries, Afghanistan meets its fuel needs through neighboring countries such as Iran, Pakistan and Turkmenistan.
In recent years Iraq has provided for some of Afghanistan’s diesel demand, using a transit route through Iran. Overall, Afghanistan imports about 30 percent of its needed fuel through the Iranian borders.
Iran can also play a crucial role in the transit of oil products to Iraq as the Arab country, despite its 115 billion barrels of oil resources, only has the capacity to refine 681 thousand barrels per day.