Seyed Hamid Hosseini said: “The total value of oil and non-oil exports in the first eight months of this [calendar] year (which began on March 21) was $31 billion, of which $18.2 billion was downstream petroleum products.”

He added: "Last year, $3.5 billion worth of downstream products of the oil industry were exported monthly, and this figure has reached an average of $4 billion per month this year."

The chairman of the Union of Exporters of Petroleum, Gas and Petrochemical Products, noting that the export of downstream products of the oil industry has increased by 10 to 12 billion dollars compared to last year, said: "This growth is largely due to the increase in the value of exports."