Reports of gasoline shortages spread across Tehran on Monday, with filling stations closing after running out of fuel and motorists describing long searches and queues for increasingly scarce supplies.
Images, videos and accounts posted widely on Persian-language social media showed closed stations and lines of cars at others still operating, with shortages reported in several parts of the capital, including central and northern Tehran. The disruption was also acknowledged by state-affiliated media.
“Some gas stations have closed without a clear explanation, creating considerable concern and questions for people,” SSN wrote, calling on the government to explain whether the closures were part of an attempt to curb fuel consumption and how long they would last.
The shortages bring into the open a problem Iranian officials have been warning about for months: the country is consuming more gasoline than it can produce. Reza Sepahvand, spokesperson for parliament’s Energy Committee, said this month that Iran was producing about 130 million liters of gasoline a day while consuming around 137 million liters, leaving a daily shortfall of about seven million liters. Sepahvand also said gasoline imports had stopped under the US naval blockade, removing one of the ways Tehran had previously made up the difference between domestic production and demand. Other official estimates have put the deficit even higher. Mohammad Jafar Ghaempanah, President Masoud Pezeshkian’s executive deputy, said this month that Iran faced a gasoline imbalance of around 14 million liters a day.
The government is therefore confronting an increasingly difficult choice: finding ways to reduce consumption without sharply raising the price motorists pay at the pump.Iran has for years sold heavily subsidized gasoline, contributing to high consumption and imposing a growing burden on state finances. Pezeshkian himself has questioned the logic of buying fuel at international prices while selling it domestically at a fraction of the cost. But attempts to raise gasoline prices carry considerable political risk. A sudden increase in November 2019 triggered nationwide protests that quickly expanded into broader demonstrations against the Islamic Republic. Security forces responded with a deadly crackdown and a near-total internet shutdown.
The memory of those protests has made gasoline prices one of the most politically sensitive economic issues facing successive Iranian governments. Officials have instead discussed alternatives including changes to fuel quotas, limiting subsidized gasoline and charging higher prices for consumption above allocated amounts.But uncertainty over those plans has itself contributed to anxiety among motorists, with long queues reported at filling stations in recent days. The supply squeeze comes as Iran faces a broader deterioration in economic conditions following months of war and sanctions.
Washington on Monday expanded its campaign of secondary sanctions against Tehran as part of what US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent has called an “economic D-Day” intended to sever Iran’s remaining economic lifelines. For motorists in Tehran, however, the consequences are increasingly immediate. (Read More)
