Financial Tribune - Total gasoline in Iran's inventories amounts to 200 million liters, said Abbas Kazemi, the managing director of the National Iranian Oil Refining and Distribution Company (NIORDC).

"Following the launch of the Persian Gulf Star Refinery (last month), we now have no issues in producing regular and high-octane gasoline. Almost 80 million liters of regular gasoline is in our inventories," Abbas Kazemi was quoted as saying by ISNA on Sunday. That is roughly equal to the nation's demand for the fuel in a single day. Data show that Iranians burned almost 74 million liters of gasoline daily in the previous fiscal year that ended on March 20. The government had to import 12 million liters a day to fill the gap.

Almost 120 million liters of premium gasoline, branded as 'super', has also been stored. Premium gasoline is sold in major cities such as Tehran, Isfahan, Shiraz, Tabriz and Mashhad.

Average gasoline consumption has been close to 78 million liters daily in the present fiscal. The increase can be attributed to higher demand for fuel in the two-week Persian New Year holiday season� (March 21-April 2).

According to published reports, a total of 1.1 billion liters of gasoline, or 85.6 million liters daily, were burned during the two-week period, approximately 5.5% higher than consumption during the previous annual holiday season.

Kazemi stressed that gasoline storage may fluctuate on a weekly or daily basis. "Sometimes storage is up and sometimes it is down. There is no cause for concern."