The sale was part of a total of 10,000 tons of gasoline offered on the energy bourse by the state-owned National Iranian Oil Refining and Distribution Company on Wednesday, IRENEX official website reported.
Buyers were required to purchase a minimum of 100 tons at a base price of $581 per ton. The cargos were delivered from the Persian Gulf Star Refinery near Bandar Abbas in south Iran.
NIORDC has plans to offer another 10,000 tons of gasoline 91 octane at a base price of $581/ton on August 11, according to Financial Tribune.
Ali Hosseini, the IRENEX boss announced earlier in the week that the fuel will be offered to Afghan buyers in the initial phase, adding that the initiative could later be extended to other neighbors.
Hosseini said gasoline will be offered on a weekly basis and if the initiative is successful the offer will increase.
Payment Mechanisms
Payments can be settled via two methods, namely paying the Central Securities Depository of Iran and direct payment to the seller outside of the capital market clearing house.
Buyers can pay either in rials or in foreign currency subject to the seller’s needs.
However, the head of energy commission of Tehran Chamber of Commerce Industries, Mines and Agriculture, Reza Padidar told IRNA that due to ther US sanctions against the banking sector, payments could be settled either via barter trade or using local currencies.
Buyers should first receive trading codes to be eligible to trade in IRENEX. They can also place orders via authorized brokerages.
Buyers can include domestic and foreign traders as well as commercial companies.
Exports to Neighbors
Of Iran’s 15 neighbors, nine are interested in buying fuel, mainly due to high quality and competitive prices, Padidar said, adding that “had it not been for the financial and banking restrictions, all 15 neighbors would prefer to enter Iran’s market”.
After Afghanistan, Iraq’s Kurdistan region, which has cordial political and economic ties to Tehran, will be Iran’s gasoline export destination. After that, fuel will be exported to Pakistan and Armenia.
For almost four decades Iran was a fuel importer, especially gasoline, because local refiners could not meet growing demand.
Officials now say Iran’s gasoline production has surpassed domestic demand and the nation has reached self-reliance in producing the strategic fuel.
According to Oil Minister Bijan Namdar Zanganeh, Iran is producing 15 million liters of gasoline more than domestic need, and the surplus is stored.
“Daily gasoline output increased from 52 million liters in 2012 to 107 million liters this June -- a figure projected to reach 110 million liters per day by the end of August,” Shana quoted the minister as saying.
Regarding fuel quality, he said gasoline output that meets Euro-4 and Euro-5 qualifications would reach 74 million liters a day from zero in 2012. Diesel output with euro standards will reach 50 million liters a day.
As per existing reports, average daily domestic gasoline consumption is near 92 million liters. Eighty percent of the refining industry is the function of the private sector.