Lines formed outside Tehran petrol stations from midnight as a daily shortfall met with panic buying, while officials denied a shortage and said prices would have to change, without clarifying when or by how much.
Long queues stretched for kilometres outside petrol stations in Tehran and other Iranian cities in the early hours of Thursday as a daily fuel shortfall collided with a surge in panic buying, and government officials simultaneously confirmed that petrol prices will rise, without specifying when or by how much.
Videos posted on social media showed lines of vehicles forming in the capital and nearby city of Karaj around midnight on Wednesday and lasting into the early hours, with several stations closing before demand could be met, Euronews reported.
Officials attributed the surge to rumours of shortages, but the scale of the disruption and the announcement of a price increase suggested a growing structural problem.
The shortfall of 15 million litres per day is the result of US sanctions that have curtailed imports, US-Israeli strikes on Iranian refining infrastructure and the naval blockade of Iranian ports that has been in place since the war began on 28 February.
The National Iranian Oil Products Refining and Distribution Company’s managing director Mohammad Sadegh Azimifar said consumption in Tehran province had risen 30 per cent but insisted the supply chain was stable.
“Some people have gone to petrol stations because of rumours, but there is no cause for concern,” he said.
Keramat Veis-Karami, managing director of the National Iranian Fuel Distribution Company, confirmed that average daily distribution rose from 138 million litres in Mordad to 150 million litres on Wednesday — a figure that suggests demand is running well ahead of normal levels.
He called the shortage rumours “baseless and unfounded” and urged drivers not to queue unless their tanks were genuinely close to empty.
Vice President of Iran for Executive Affairs Mohammad Jafar Ghaempanah said on Wednesday evening that fuel prices would have to change.
“Today we need to make changes to the price of petrol and diesel,” he told Gilan provincial television.
“The way, extent and timing of this price change have not yet been decided, we need to sit down with all those involved and then inform the public of the outcome,” Ghaempanah explained.
He acknowledged the current subsidy system was unfair, with car owners benefiting from more subsidised fuel than those without vehicles.
