Economics
Oil Traders Targeting Iran for $1 Billion in Gasoline Sales
- Nation's refineries running flat out, can't supply local needs
- Iran was biggest Persian Gulf gasoline buyer before sanctions
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Iran will need to import about 20 percent more gasoline to meet pent-up demand in the first year after economic sanctions are lifted, creating a market for some $1 billion in fuel sales from abroad, according to traders and analysts.
The nation with the world’s fifth-largest crude reserves may need to buy about 50,000 barrels a day of gasoline if sanctions are removed in early 2016 as expected, say analysts at consultants Facts Global Energy, IHS Inc. and Energy Aspects Ltd. With its refineries running at full capacity and unable to raise output for at least another year, Iran now imports 41,000 barrels a day, or about 9 percent of the gasoline it uses.