According to Khabar Online, the increase in gasoline consumption and the gap between production and demand in recent years has turned the country’s fuel resource management into one of the major challenges of the oil industry.
Fars wrote in a news article: In a situation where part of the country’s resources are spent on supplying and distributing gasoline, preventing the excessive consumption and smuggling of this product can play an important role in reducing fuel supply costs and preserving national resources.
In this regard, the government has put the reform of the gasoline distribution system on the agenda and is seeking to increase transparency in the refueling process by implementing the plan of collecting emergency cards from stations and certifying fuel cards.
Station emergency cards have been used over the past years to facilitate people’s access to gasoline; However, the use of these cards, due to the fact that the identity of the consumer is not clear at each refueling, has limited the possibility of accurately monitoring the consumption of cars. For this reason, the policy maker seeks to transfer more part of the refueling process to personal cards and record the consumption information of each car.
Collecting emergency cards in 11 provinces
According to the plan announced by Iran’s National Oil Products Distribution Company, the plan to collect free parking cards has been started in 11 provinces of the country in the first phase. Hormozgan, West Azarbaijan, East Azarbaijan, South Khorasan, North Khorasan, Razavi Khorasan, Ardabil, Yazd, Kurdistan, Kerman and Sistan and Baluchestan are the provinces subject to the implementation of this plan.
In this mechanism, 50 liters of gasoline at the third rate, equivalent to 10,000 Tomans per liter, will be charged on personal fuel cards at the same time as the emergency cards are collected from the stations, so that people whose previous quotas have expired can continue refueling with their cards.
Karamet Viskarmi, the CEO of the National Iranian Oil Products Distribution Company, in the meeting to review the implementation issues of the plan to remove emergency cards from stations and charging the third layer of the quota, emphasized the necessity of implementing this program while maintaining the quality of service delivery.
Viskarmi also emphasized on paying attention to transportation routes and intercity roads and predicting the necessary arrangements for fueling, so that the implementation of the plan can be done without disrupting the services of the stations.
Getting a fuel card certified to deal with smuggling
Along with the collection of emergency cards, the identification of fuel cards is also one of the government’s plans to control consumption and deal with gasoline smuggling. In this regard, Reza Sepehbond, the spokesman of the Energy Commission of the Islamic Council, said in a radio program, referring to the government’s measures to manage gasoline consumption, that two main actions in this field have been put on the agenda, which include collecting the emergency cards of the stations and making the fuel cards certified.
He stated that in the new mechanism, a system has been considered for monitoring the amount and frequency of refueling of each car based on the national code or bank card, and added: This measure can be effective in controlling excessive consumption and preventing fuel smuggling.
Pointing out that fuel smuggling is not only limited to the border areas and neighboring countries, Sepehbond stated: Even in Tehran, cases of gasoline smuggling have been identified. As it was found in the surveys, a car refueled more than 350 times in a month.
According to him, the significant difference in the price of fuel is one of the factors in the formation of such violations, and with the implementation of new mechanisms, it will be possible to identify and control these cases. The importance of this matter is that recording the number of times of refueling and the amount of gasoline received by each car can identify unusual patterns of consumption. In fact, identifying cars that have unusual refueling times in a short period of time increases the possibility of investigating and dealing with possible violations.
Worried about the removal of free parking cards
Despite the goals announced for the implementation of this project, one of the main concerns of the people is how to refuel after the quota is over or when a personal card is not available. Referring to people’s concerns in this regard, Sepahbund said: The issue of access to the emergency card of stations is being investigated and in some cities, including Mashhad, emergency cards have been kept for high-traffic stations. Also, plans are being made to solve possible problems in other provinces.
This shows that the implementation of the plan to remove emergency cards should be done according to the conditions of each region; Because in high-traffic routes, touristic areas and intercity roads, the access of passing vehicles to the station’s fuel card can be more important. Therefore, the success of the plan, in addition to limiting free cards, depends on proper notification, easy access to personal cards and predicting alternative solutions for travelers.
Stopping the growth of gasoline consumption in the first seven months of the year
The implementation of consumption management policies is followed in a situation where, according to the CEO of the National Oil Products Distribution Company, the growth trend of gasoline consumption has stopped in the first seven months of 1405. According to the latest statistics of Karmat Viskarmi, the country’s average gasoline consumption was 133 million liters per day until the end of October, which has almost no growth compared to the same period last year. This is despite the fact that in the past years, the annual growth of gasoline consumption was conventionally recorded at about 6%.
He also pointed to the statistics of the first 10 days of November and said that the country’s gasoline consumption has decreased by 1.2 percent compared to the same period last year.
The CEO of the National Oil Products Distribution Company considered this trend to be the result of the set of measures taken in the field of consumption management and emphasized that price and non-price policies have been effective in controlling consumption and preventing the normal annual growth of gasoline. Although the entire stoppage of consumption growth cannot be attributed to the removal of emergency cards, increasing the monitoring of refueling and limiting the possibility of non-transparent use of free cards can be one of the complementary tools to continue this trend.
Saving consumption and reducing fuel supply costs
The importance of reforming the gasoline distribution system is not only limited to reducing consumption; Rather, preventing fuel smuggling and diversion from the official distribution network can also help preserve the country’s economic resources. In a situation where the difference in gasoline prices in the country and neighboring countries increases the motivation for smuggling, any amount of fuel that goes out of the official cycle through violations and unconventional consumption imposes more costs on the country to meet the needs of domestic consumers.
From this point of view, the identification of fuel cards can provide the possibility of more careful monitoring of the distribution chain and, by identifying abnormal consumption, increase the field of targeted treatment of violations. Of course, to measure the success of this policy, it is necessary for the National Oil Products Distribution Company to publish specific statistics on the reduction in the use of emergency cards, detected violations, and the amount of savings resulting from the implementation of the plan.
Along with these measures, the development of alternative fuels can also be effective in reducing the pressure on gasoline consumption. In this context, Viskarmi has announced a 90% increase in the royalties of CNG stations and has announced that the royalties of 1404 have been calculated from the beginning of 1405 with this amount of increase and the payment of the demands of station owners is also underway.
He also pointed to the stability of gas supply of CNG stations and said: last year, the gas supply limit of these stations was very small and the stability coefficient of their gas supply has been almost 100% so far.
It should be mentioned that the gradual elimination of emergency cards at stations and the identification of fuel cards can be considered as a step towards making the gasoline distribution system smarter; A policy that, if implemented correctly, in addition to increasing the transparency of consumption, can prevent smuggling and waste of resources. However, the success of this plan depends on the observance of consumers’ rights, the supply of fuel for passengers and passing vehicles, the stability of smart systems and the transparent publication of its results. Stopping the growth of gasoline consumption in the first seven months of the year and reducing consumption by 1.2 percent in the first 10 days of November, according to the announced statistics, is a sign of a change in the consumption trend; But the continuation of this situation will require the completion of regulatory policies, the modification of the consumption pattern and the development of alternative fuels.
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