27-10-06 A budget bill for allocating $ 1.3 bn to gasoline imports during the second half of the current Iranian calendar year (started March 21, 2006) has been prepared.
Managing director of National Iranian Oil Products Distribution Company, Seyed Hassan Zia Kashani, told that the bill has been drawn up by the cabinet and will be forwarded to the Islamic Consultative Assembly (Majlis) soon. He noted that if the bill is not approved, there would be no more budget to import diesel fuel in the second half of the year and the current budget cannot cover the whole six months.

Kashani said gasoline consumption at power plants will increase during the second half of the year, adding, “Some new power plants have been added and since they are located in regions where gas supply is not available, they should operate on diesel fuel.”
The managing director stated that, thus far, a daily average of 1.7 bn litres diesel has been imported and $ 400 mm allocated to this purpose has been provided by the National Iranian Oil Company.

In view of increased diesel consumption by domestic power plants, its total consumption in the sector is expected to hit about 4.8 bn litres by the year-end.
During the past six months, 1.039 bn litres diesel has been consumed by the sector while the corresponding figure for the preceding year was 583 mm litres and current year’s figure indicates an increase of about 456 mm livers over the last year’s corresponding period.