Official: Iran Among World's Major Fuel Consumers

Iran is among the world's major fuel consumers with its average daily consumption reaching 174 million liters, the official IRNA news agency reported Wednesday, January 3.

Mohammad Aqababaei, managing director of the Oil Production Distribution Company (OPDC), said that on top of regular fuel consumed within the country, another 2 million liters of aircraft fuel is being consumed by the country daily.

Addressing a conference Tuesday in Chabahar, Sistan-Baluchestan Province, Aqababaei said the entire country registered a 9 percent increase in fuel consumption in the past nine months of the Iranian year.

Currently, he said, there are 3.5 million vehicles in Iran, among which 300,000 are trucks that consume 35 to 40 million liters of gas oil daily.

Aqababaei said that with the opening of gas stations in border points to sell oil products, incidents of smuggling fuel out of the country have been greatly reduced.

He said that four stations are currently being set up in the Sistan-Baluchestan border point, adding that more are to be set up in other border points in the future.

People's Daily Online --- http://english.peopledaily.com.cn/