Heavy security on Iran streets after subsidy cuts

[maddezmom]

Source: AP

TEHRAN, Iran (AP) — Iran deployed squads of riot police around the major intersections of the capital Sunday, bracing for any kind of violent backlash in the tightly controlled Islamic Republic on the day deep cuts in food and energy subsidies went into effect.

Angry taxi drivers complained as the price of fuel rose four times overnight in one of the world's leading oil producers.

"I don't know what to do," said one frustrated cab driver, who did not want to be identified for fear of retribution by authorities. "I am not allowed to increase price of my service while I am paying five times more than yesterday."

A truck driver said he paid ten times more on Sunday for natural gas to fuel his vehicle.



Read more: http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5ip7ByMH1H6fu-nNheHnSfbuZgnZw?docId=545ecdb1d7b14df39efaaf3a073f317e

[Turborama]

1. K&R Thanks for posting. So, is this the regime passing down the impacts of the sanctions, or what?

[dixiegrrrrl]

2. It sounds to me like a global plot, it is happening all over Europe,

there are warnings and threats of it happening here.

Seems pretty wide spread to be a "co-incidence".

[CJvR]

3. More likely...

...budgetary concerns.

Iran have to import gasoline at a ghastly expense, in order to sell at a huge net loss to the people.

[quakerboy]

4. Why?

Are they not a major producer of gas?

[Psephos]

5. Iran does not have a gasoline refinery. n/t

[quakerboy]

6. That seems like something a country could build for itself

particularly one which apparently intends and has capability to build nuclear facilities.

[Psephos]

7. Looks like I was wrong...sorry about that. I used an obsolete source.

So, I did some more research. :)

According to the country charts at Oil and Gas Journal, Iran has a combined refining capacity of 1.64 Mbbl/day. Major refineries include: Abadan (400,000-bbl/d capacity); Isfahan (265,000 bbl/d); Bandar Abbas (232,000 bbl/d); Tehran (225,000 bbl/d); Arak (150,000 bbl/d); and Tabriz (112,000 bbl/d). Gasoline demand is forecast to be growing at around 11.4 percent per year. Other crude oil refineries are in Kermanshah, Shiraz and Lavan Island.

Notice that these are multi-product refineries (i.e., they produce a range of petroleum products). That said, Iran does not produce nearly enough gasoline for its own consumption. They have been hampered in attempts to build more capacity because of economic sanctions prohibiting the sophisticated machinery and parts needed for a refinery. They seem to have found ways around the sanctions, because they have half a dozen refineries in various stages of construction, and when those come on line, Iran may be able to produce all it needs.

There's a decent summary of Iranian capacity here. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Iranian_Oil_Refining_and_Distribution_Company

[CJvR]

8. Yes.

Iran probably could expand it's refining capacity but then they would have to give up on something else.
Like their international Jihad, or more likely their a-bomb - the cost of that program is likely to be astronomic. Building large refinaries isn't cheap.

The low gas prices are just to buy popular support for the regime, perhaps since the regime lost it's rigged elections it figures the people don't deserve cheap gas anymore. Until now the gas subsidies have apparently been considered to be worth the expence.

[Elmore Furth]

9. Wow, even the Axis of Evil has to do some belt tightening?

So this is the wages of sin?

[Name removed]

10. Deleted message

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