میرطاهر پورپرتوی آلانق

Currently, National Iranian Oil Products Distribution Company is the exclusive distributor of various petroleum products all over Iran. High price of land in large cities and small amounts of revenue creates a waek competitive environment in which private sector is not motivated enough to invest on construction of gas stations, hence this situation leads to a shortage of gas stations in the country. One of the ways to overcome this insufficiency is to use capacities of private sector in the process of petroleum products distribution. In order to deregulate the market for distribution of petroleum products in the country, it is necessary to reform its structure. However, implementing this change should happen gradually and in different stages. Also, in all stages the government should supervise the execution of the task. In this paper, three stages of restructuring the market for petroleum products distribution in the country has been proposed. The first stage is to creat the necessary conditions for establishment of qualified firms which their duty is to receive petroleum products from oil depots and to distribute the products in filling stations. Because petroleum products in Iran have subsidized prices, it is necessary for the government to determine the commission rate paid to private firms entering this field in a way that their activity is economically viable. In this paper, by considering current and capital costs and using economic engineering- feasibility model proposed by United Nations Industrial Development Organization- and with the help of COMFAR III Expert software, we have calculated the commission rate payable to distribution companies for different values of land prices. Calculation results show that if land price considered to be zero, net commission rate payable to private distribution companies for one liter of petroleum product should be 783 IRRs. In conditions in which the distribution company is owner of either out-of-town or center of province, this number should be 808 and 1153 IRRs respectively. This number for a case in which stations are constructed by the distribution companies in combined locations: centers of provices, other cities and out-of-town stations, is calculated to be 956 IRRs.

The increased share of CNG in the country’s energy use, in response to the policy of removal of fuel subsidies, is contingent upon construction of an adequate number of CNG fuel stations to service the increased number of dual-fuel vehicles in use. The required heavy investment would have to come largely from the private sector, whose actions are dependent on profitability of the operation of such CNG fuel stations. The profitability of CNG fuel stations in turn depends on the margin allowed for the operators. Currently, the private sector does not have adequate incentives for constructing CNG fuel stations due to high land prices and low margins allowed on CNG sales do not provide the needed incentives. In order to provide adequate incentives for investment by the private sector, the mark-up allowed per unit of CNG has to be increased to a level that would render construction of CNG fuel stations economically feasible. The present study aims to study the economic feasibility of construction of single & multipurpose CNG fuel stations of different capacities under various scenarios, taking into account impact of fuel subsidy removal measures on the cost of construction and operation of such fuel stations. The results indicate that most CNG fuel stations (especially stations with low capacities) are non-economic. To resolve this problem mark-up amounts should be raised under a differential system that would allow for different mark-ups in different zones of the country.