An official in the National Iranian Oil Refining and Distribution Company (NIORDC) announced on Saturday that the company plans to increase the volume of its oil products exports to the neighboring countries.
"Iranian Oil Minister Bijan Namdar Zanganeh has called on the NIORDC in the Southeastern province of Khorassan Razavi to increase its exports of oil products to the neighboring countries," Mohammad-Mahdi Qara'ati, the head of the NIORDC's provincial department, told a news conference today.
"By increasing supply of oil products, the NIORDC seeks to avert the smuggling of such products to the neighboring states, especially Afghanistan, and guarantee its revenues in this regard," the official said.
Last month, NIOPDC Deputy Managing Director Mansour Reyahi said boosting oil products exports is one of the chief priorities of NIOPDC and the company will pursue it in the framework of the Oil Ministry's macro policies this year.
"The company faces surplus in view of gasoil, LPG, kerosene and fuel oil output," he added.
Afghanistan, Iraq and Nakhjavan enclave are among the destinations for gasoil exports, he said and added, "Armenia and Tajikistan are the two countries the company plans to enter their markets this year."
Kurdistan autonomous region in Iraq is another market NIOPDC plans to start exports of gasoil and kerosene to respectively 6 and 2.5 million liters per day.
Activating border markets is also on the agenda with the aim of curbing smuggling oil products, NIOPDC’s official said.