Saeid Rahman-Salari made the announcement Tuesday during a ceremony marking the diversification of the country’s fuel portfolio.

He stated that after nearly two decades of efforts in the CNG sector, 2,600 CNG stations are now operational nationwide. The 12 new stations were inaugurated to coincide with the 46th anniversary of the Islamic Revolution.

Rahman-Salari noted that with approximately 4.4 million natural gas vehicles in the country, there is currently one CNG station for every 1,800 vehicles. He added that CNG accounts for less than 2.5% of total natural gas consumption in Iran.

The CNG project manager emphasized that CNG currently makes up about 14.5% of the total fuel consumption in the light transportation sector, with over 19 million cubic meters consumed daily.

He highlighted that more than $3 billion has been allocated to the construction of CNG stations and support for the conversion and production of dual-fuel vehicles. Since the project’s inception, over 117 billion cubic meters of CNG (equivalent to 117 billion liters of gasoline) have been distributed nationwide.

Rahman-Salari stressed that if CNG had not been added to the country’s fuel portfolio, gasoline consumption would have reached 143.4 million liters per day by December 20, 2024.

He underscored the need to address obstacles to CNG development in the transportation fuel mix, given the rising gasoline consumption and stagnant CNG usage.

He added that over 95% of the country’s CNG stations are currently operational. The 12 new stations, located in East Azerbaijan, Kerman, Isfahan, Lorestan, Khorasan Razavi, and Sistan and Baluchestan provinces, will increase the country’s CNG capacity by 14,450 cubic meters per hour.

Rahman-Salari noted that approximately 10 trillion rials have been invested in these 12 stations, creating around 130 jobs.

He also announced the signing of contracts worth $45 million with Iran Khodro and Zamyad for the production of 45,000 dual-fuel taxis and vans and 30,000 dual-fuel taxis and pickup trucks, respectively. These contracts are set to be completed by 2025.

Regarding the taxi tank replacement initiative, Rahman-Salari reported that 8,200 outdated taxi tanks have been replaced so far, including 1,200 in the past month. He added that 4,000 new tanks will be installed on taxis with outdated tanks by the end of the year.