Iran empties oil storage tanks to store gasoline

The SEO of Iranian Oil Pipelines and Telecommunication Company North District, Arsalan Rahimi, announced on Sunday that Iran is emptying its oil storage tanks in the north of the country to store gasoline.

Some 770,000 barrels of crude oil have been transferred via the Neka-Rey 32-inch pipeline from the Neka oil terminal, in northern Iran, to the Tehran oil refinery, he informed.

“This was done according to a policy by the oil ministry and the Iranian Oil Pipeline and Telecommunication Company (IOPTC) to create a new capacity for gasoline storage,” Arsalan Rahimi said.

On February 2019, Iran become self-sufficient in gasoline production. Iran’s Persian Gulf Star Refinery converts light crude, known as condensate, into gasoline and naphtha.

In December 2019, Spokesman of the Iranian Oil, Gas and Petrochemical Products Exporters’ Union Hamid Hosseini announced that Iran can export some 25 million to 30 million liters of gasoline per day as a result of the implementation of the gasoline rationing scheme that recently came back into force.

In the past week, Iran could manage to export 1.53 million barrels of gasoline and alkylate to Venezuela to help jump-start the oil refineries in the Latin American state amid a fuel crisis, under the US sanctions.

Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister for the Economic Diplomacy Affairs said Gholamreza Ansari has said that Iran and Venezuela will continue their cooperation on downstream and oil sectors since the South American country is a good customer for Iran.
Source: MNA