Keramat Veis-Karami said Wednesday during the company’s winter fuel supply conference that the company plays a key role in controlling consumption. He said an operational task force to combat fuel smuggling has been established and added that managers across the company’s 37 regional offices must maintain continuous communication with the task force.

Veis-Karami said gasoline consumption “is unfortunately not in a favorable condition,” noting that average daily use has reached 133 million liters this year, up from last year’s 124 million liters.

He said the 9-million-liter increase must be managed through stronger oversight and managerial decisions. He added that the country’s average baseline gasoline production since the start of the year has been about 105 million liters per day. Despite major maintenance work at some refineries, efforts are underway to increase production capacity.

Veis-Karami also said daily CNG consumption has fallen to about 16 million liters, even though the country’s CNG supply capacity is more than twice current demand. He said CNG stations must be upgraded and the fleet strengthened to use this available capacity.

Contracts have been signed to upgrade stations and vehicles to boost CNG consumption, he said, adding that declining CNG use inevitably increases gasoline consumption and places additional pressure on domestic production.