The proposed candidate for the Petroleum Ministry Mohsen Paknejad made the remarks adding that “the government has not defined any plan for raising gasoline prices, I don’t either.”

He continued that non-price alternatives were the main solutions to the gasoline imbalance issue, noting that as long as it concerns the Petroleum Ministry, it will seek to solve the challenge by deploying non-price solutions; the parliament news outlet quotes him as saying.   

There is no doubt that non-price alternatives are a priority concerning reducing gasoline imbalance, he was quoted as saying.  

Referring to his plans to overcome the challenge of energy imbalance in the country, he said that the problem has two parts: gasoline demand management and optimizing its consumption on the one hand and increasing production and supply on the other hand.  

He said that regarding natural gas imbalance, increasing production from undeveloped gas fields is one of the initiatives that could be taken which needs financial resources, added that there is a possibility to provide the financial resources for investment through creating partnerships with large industries as the main natural gas consumers.