TEHRAN: Iran announced Jan. 11 that during the last nine months it exported 1.25 billion liters of diesel thanks to a decrease in use of liquid fuel by power plants.
According to Iranian Energy Ministry’s latest weekly report, the diesel consumption in Iranian power plants fell by 38.4 percent to 4.342 billion liters during a period from March 21 to Dec. 31 (10 months and 11 days of current Iranian fiscal year), while natural gas consumption rose by 16.8 percent to 46.847 billion cubic meters.
The export of 1.25 billion liters of diesel in the last nine months suggests that the country’s daily diesel exports reached 4.63 million liters per day, indicating a historical record since 2000, when Iran exported 6.8 million liters of diesel per day.
Iran didn’t import diesel from 1998 to 2005 – a period during which the country’s average diesel exports were about 2.34 million liters per day.
There isn’t exact data about Iran’s total diesel consumption during last two years, but official reports of National Iranian Oil Refining and Distribution Company indicate that the country’s diesel consumption in 2013 was 105.4 million liters per day, 8.4 percent more than the previous year, while the production level was 97.7 million liters per day.
During the current Iranian fiscal year, some 12.1 billion liters (33 million liters per day) of diesel was consumed by power plants, 57 percent more than the previous year due to gas shortages, especially in winter.
During the fiscal year from March 2013 to March 2014, Iran consumed 96 million cubic meters per day (mcm/d) of gas and 15.2 billion liters of fuel oil in power plants. Iran stopped diesel imports in 1998, but then became a net diesel importer in 2005 until early 2015. The country’s diesel bunkering also reached 215,000 tons in 2013.
Iran’s transportation sector shared about 50 percent of the country’s total gas oil consumption in 2013, while power, industrial and agriculture sectors shared 29 percent, seven percent and 10 percent, respectively.
During the current fiscal year, Iran not only stopped gas oil imports, but it also renewed net gas exports thanks to significant decrease in diesel usage in the power sector. Iran increased raw gas production capacity by 100 mcm/d in 2014 to 660 mcm/d, while the same growth pace is expected for the current year. Iran says it is preparing to increase this volume to 1,000 mcm/d by 2018.
