DUSHANBE (TCA) — Iran has announced the official launch of its gas oil export to neighboring Tajikistan for the first time in the history of relations between the two countries, Iran’s Mehr News Agency reported on February 3.
After months of negotiations and the removal of international sanctions on Iran, the first shipment of Iranian gas oil was exported to Tajikistan to turn the Central Asian country into the third customer of Iran’s fuel oil after Iraq and Afghanistan.
Provincial Director of the National Iranian Oil Products Distribution Company (NIOPDC) Mohammad-Mehdi Gharaei was quoted by the news agency as saying that the first ever gas oil shipment to Tajikistan was transported through the land border in the Khorasan Razavi province.
Gharaei said the amount of gas oil export to Tajikistan has been 2.9 million liters in the first shipment. “Considering the high quality of Iranian oil products, more demand is expected from neighboring countries,” the official said.
NIOPDC Deputy Managing Director for International Affairs Esmaeil Hasham-Firouz earlier evaluated the consumer market of Tajikistan for gas oil to be 2.5 million to 3 million liters per day. “Among the Central Asian countries, Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan are producers and exporters of various oil products while Tajikistan remains a potential market for Iranian gas oil exports,” the official said.
Tajikistan is heavily dependent on oil products imports, mainly from Russia.
