Pilot Plan Cuts Gasoline Consumption in Tehran: NIOPDC

A month-old pilot program that links gasoline purchases made with station-held cards to individual identities has reduced gasoline distribution in Tehran province by about 20 million liters, the head of Iran's national fuel distribution company said Sunday.

Keramat Veis-Karami, managing director of National Iranian Oil Products Distribution Company (NIOPDC), told reporters the program began in the Iranian month of Mehr, which ran from late September to late October. He said gasoline consumption in Tehran province averaged about 20 million liters a day in Mehr, compared with about 20.7 million liters a day in the same month last year (March 2025-26). The program is now operating at 250 fuel stations in the capital. Under it, drivers who fill up with a station's emergency card, which is not tied to a specific driver, must be identified first. Veis-Karami said the aim is to minimize use of those cards and make fuel distribution more transparent and traceable.

Untracked fuel

Veis-Karami said fuel drawn with personal smart fuel cards is fully recorded, including vehicle type, quota amount, station, province and volume dispensed in each transaction. Fuel dispensed with station cards, by contrast, was not tracked by recipient, vehicle type or frequency of fill-ups. "Some 59 million liters of gasoline left stations every day without precise monitoring," he said, referring to the period from Aug. 23 to Sept. 7. During those 16 days, he said, national gasoline consumption averaged 144 million liters a day. Station cards accounted for 41% of fill-ups and personal fuel cards for 59%. The company said data from the new system showed that 51% of people who used a station card did so only once. But in some cases a single national ID number was linked to more than 100 fill-ups totaling more than 2,000 liters.

Veis-Karami cited several examples from reports compiled by the company. One person filled up 105 times at a single station in one day. Another made 98 fill-ups at 38 stations. On the last day of Mehr, he said, one person who made four visits and received tokens got a total of 95 liters. He said past approaches, including collecting station cards all at once or restricting them, caused long lines and difficulties for drivers who did not have a personal fuel card with them. The identification program was designed to enforce the rules while keeping fueling accessible, he said.

The program is based on a Cabinet resolution, No. 111166, Veis-Karami said. Its sixth strategy calls for allocating fuel quotas to cars and motorcycles in an optimal, targeted way. He said the identification system is separate from the national smart fuel card system introduced in 2007. Drivers are authenticated before fueling against a database of vehicle owners linked to the Central Bank of Iran, and the fee charged for the service is legally authorized, he said. He acknowledged that the new card readers, with 5 to 15 devices per station depending on the number of pumps, require round-the-clock support, and that there may be temporary resistance or delays early on. He said the average time to get a token and fuel up has dropped below 30 seconds.

Price change and consumption

Veis-Karami also pointed to the effect of raising the price of the third tier of gasoline. National consumption averaged 144 million liters a day from Aug. 23 to Sept. 7 but fell to 133 million liters a day over the next 15 days, he said. That is a saving of 11 million liters a day during what he described as the peak of the summer travel season, or more than 160 million liters over the period. He said the savings helped stabilize the country's fuel supply chain. He said the price change and the identification program are required under higher-level laws, parliamentary resolutions and Cabinet regulations.

Shift to natural gas

Veis-Karami said the price change also encouraged drivers to switch to cleaner fuels. Daily national consumption of compressed natural gas, or CNG, rose by 14%, from 14.7 million cubic meters to 16.7 million cubic meters. He said the government has invested heavily in CNG infrastructure. More than 2,600 CNG stations with standard equipment are now operating nationwide, with capacity to distribute up to 40 million cubic meters a day, and he said that spare capacity should be used to the fullest. On diesel, Veis-Karami said Iran saved 1.5 billion liters of diesel used outside power plants last year. He said the country went from being a diesel importer in the Iranian year 1403, which began in March 2024, to a diesel exporter in the summer of 1405, which ended in September.

Premium gasoline

Veis-Karami said Iran will continue importing premium gasoline, known as super, and has also begun producing it domestically at the Persian Gulf Star gas condensate refinery. Contracts have been signed to supply 50 stations nationwide directly from the refinery. He said premium gasoline costs IRR 1,030,000 (38.14 cents) per liter at the pump and that buying it is entirely optional. Distribution is starting with cities where emergency station cards have been collected and quotas assigned to personal fuel cards, and other cities will be added over time.

Bank card quotas

Separately, Veis-Karami said the infrastructure is in place to move fuel quotas from smart fuel cards to car owners' bank cards, as required by the 2025 budget law and a Cabinet regulation approved in December 2025. He said that effort is separate from the station-card identification program and is run by the Ministry of Economy and Finance. The ministry must build a separate quota switch, and its cybersecurity must be approved by AFTA, the presidential center that oversees cybersecurity, before it goes into operation or exchanges any data, he said. After that approval, the program is to be piloted at 25 stations in five provinces: Hamedan, Qazvin, Qom, Alborz and Semnan, with five stations in each. Veis-Karami said his company has repeatedly said it has the technical capacity to send quota data to the ministry's switch at the start of each month, and he urged AFTA to speed up its approval.

Emergency cards removed in 11 provinces

Under a separate plan approved by a government working group, emergency station cards are being eliminated in some provinces and the third tier of fuel quota is being credited directly to personal cards. Veis-Karami said the plan was first piloted in Kerman province, where it ended lines that stretched for kilometers and cut gasoline consumption by 14%. It was then extended to Sistan-Baluchestan and South Khorasan provinces. At the start of the Iranian month of Aban, which began Oct. 23, eight more provinces were added: Hormozgan, Yazd, West Azerbaijan, East Azerbaijan, North Khorasan, Razavi Khorasan, Ardabil and Kurdistan. That brings the total to 11. He said there are no plans to remove emergency cards in Tehran province, where the identification program will continue instead. Drivers for ride-hailing services such as Snapp and Tapsi, who use more gasoline, receive third-tier credit quotas based on their monthly mileage, arranged through the companies. That lets them fuel up with their personal cards without disrupting passenger service, he said. - Shana