Kilometre-long petrol queues in Iran signal further strain on Tehran

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.

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.

Tehran petrol consumption spikes

The National Iranian Oil Products Refining and Distribution Company's managing director Mohammad Sadegh Azimifar said consumption in Tehran province had risen 30% 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.

IRGC and Tehran in a standoff?

Any fuel price increase in Iran carries significant political risk. Tehran's last attempt to raise petrol prices in November 2019 triggered the bloodiest crackdown on protests since the 1979 revolution up to that point, killing an estimated 1,500 people according to human rights organisations.

More recently, in December 2025, Iran was swept by nationwide protests sparked by persistent hyperinflation that security forces suppressed with lethal force, with tens of thousands of casualties, according to reports. The Pezeshkian government has not set a date for the increase.

Reports in Iranian media also suggest a dispute between the IRGC and the government over access to strategic fuel reserves, with the Guards reportedly opposing Tehran's unrestricted use of the stockpiles. Neither side has publicly confirmed the dispute.

Fuel smuggling is compounding supply pressures. Iranian media reported last week that authorities in the south of the country had dismantled a 6-kilometre pipeline buried under beach sand and seawater used to smuggle fuel out of Iran.

The Bandar Abbas maritime security unit also announced the seizure of more than 12,000 litres of smuggled diesel worth approximately €10,000 at the open-market exchange rate.