Tehran, Iran, July 6
By Mehdi Sepahvand - Trend:
Iran is holding talks with its traditional Swiss partners for the import of gasoline.
Last week representatives from the Swiss company Glencore visited Tehran to hold talks with the Iranian Oil Ministry and the National Iranian Oil Refining and Distribution Company (NIORDC) for selling gasoline to Iran, Mehr news agency reported July 6.
Glencore was one of the companies that exported gasoline to Iran before cutting the business in the initial days of 2010 under sanctions on the Iranian economy.
The move came 30 years after Glencore founder Marc Rich, who sold his company stake to management, started the business of spot oil trade by dealing in Iranian crude in defiance of sanctions on Tehran after the 1979 revolution.
Before Glencore representatives came to Tehran, Iran had held talks with another Swiss company, Vitol.
Vitol was also a traditional exporter of gasoline to Iran, which stopped the export in 2009 under sanctions.
Iranians consumed 186 million liters more gasoline in spring 2015 compared to spring 2014.
Gasoline consumption amounted to 71.4 million liters on average per day in spring, compared to 69.4 million liters in spring 2014.
The country's gasoline output is currently around 62 million liters, so it needs to import the rest. The Islamic Republic only imports Euro-4 gasoline currently.
Gasoline consumption in the past Iranian fiscal year, which ended on March 20, 2015, rose by 1.8 percent compared to its preceding year, while production fell by 4 percent year on year.
Edited by CN
