While “financial resources for the construction of Bandar Abbas’s petroleum facility have run out” and the CEO of Persian Gulf Refining Corp has announced that “only 32 percent of the refinery has been physically built,” right-wing media is now questioning “how Iran can possibly become self-sufficient in petroleum by the year 2011 or even export petroleum, as claimed by Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.” As such, Ahmadinejad’s claim that, “If sanctions are put on petroleum, we will produce it within a week or two,” is more of a joke. Knowing that, senior Islamic Republic officials have placed petroleum at the tope of the list of items imported from abroad.
According to statistics announced by the Iranian customs last week, in 1388 more than 4.5 billion dollars worth of petroleum was imported by Iran, showing a 67 increase in value and a 154 percent increase in weight in comparison with the prior year. The statistics placed petroleum at the top of the list of items imported by Iran.
Meanwhile, based on other official statistics released, Iranians used 22 billion and 961 million liters of petroleum last year, showing a 1 billion and 330 million decrease compared to the year before. Economic experts are wondering why, despite lower consumption, Iran’s petroleum imports increased by 154 percent.
One oil analyst tells Rooz, “The only answer that can be found for that question is [Iran’s] effort to stock up on pe… >>>
