Iran gasoline imports are "leverage": State Dept http://www.reuters.com/article/topNews/idUSWAT00723720070329
Thu Mar 29, 2007
By Chris Baltimore
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Iran's heavy dependence on imported gasoline is "a point of leverage" for the United States, a senior U.S. official said on Thursday.
Iran imports about 40 percent of its gasoline supplies and "you're right to suggest that this is a point of leverage to us," Undersecretary of State Nicholas Burns told the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, amid heightened sensitivity in the oil markets to growing tensions with Tehran over its nuclear program.
The West accuses Iran of trying to build atomic bombs under the guise of a civilian nuclear program, a charge Tehran denies.
Iran is OPEC's second largest oil producer but does not have enough refining capacity to meet its domestic gasoline needs. It has been an importer since 1982.
Though they haven't said so outright, U.S. officials are clearly focusing on Iran's gasoline imports as a possible sanctions route.
"There are no free moves for Iran -- everything has a consequence," U.S. Deputy Energy Secretary Clay Sell told Reuters in an interview on Wednesday. "Their dependence on imported products is a vulnerability."
The U.N. Security Council on Saturday voted unanimously to impose new sanctions targeting Tehran's arms exports, but has not targeted energy supplies.
Iran imported 150,000 barrels per day of gasoline in 2005, versus total consumption of 400,000 bpd, making it the second biggest gasoline importer after the United States, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration.
Burns said that cheap Iranian gasoline supplies have kept demand high. "The streets of Tehran -- I have never been there - but I understand that it is impossible to drive there because there are so many cars on the road because the price of gasoline is so cheap," Burns said.
Iran's parliament this month approved the rationing of subsidized gasoline from May 22, while raising prices in moves that aim to cut costly fuel imports but which could stoke inflation and arouse public criticism.
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