According to the report, said that imports of petrol during the last Iranian month, ending September 22, “had shrunk to 0.8m litres, down from 23m litres a few months ago.”
The Financial Times added, “Vitol, Trafigura and Glencore were among the trading companies that stopped selling petrol to Iran in the spring owing to the threat of US sanctions.”
The new level of imports combined with the fuel refined in the petrochemical plants would leave the Iranian regime with a supply shortfall of about 7m litres a month below the nationwide demand, according to the newspaper.
It added that some oil analysts believe the gasoline produced in petrochemical factories costs at least 15 times more than the gasoline made in refineries. This can at best be a short-term solution for the regime.