Iran has started burning mazut, a heavy fuel oil, at several power plants despite worsening air pollution, Fars News reported on Sunday, signalling a renewed reliance on high-sulphur feedstock as winter demand rises and smog intensifies.
Power plants burned more than 21 million liters of mazut on November 14, the outlet said – a volume that would require oil tankers stretching roughly 14 kilometers end to end.
Stations in Hamedan in the west, Neka in the north and Arak in Markazi province were among the biggest consumers, it added.
“We do not want to burn mazut because it damages plants and is an expensive commodity,” Energy Minister Abbas Aliabadi said last week. “But when gas is scarce, we are forced to use it.”
Government assurances under pressure
Officials in President Masoud Pezeshkian’s administration have repeatedly vowed to phase out mazut in favor of cleaner fuels.
Scheduled outages could temporarily replace “producing poison” for the public, Government spokesperson Fatemeh Mohajerani wrote on X in November last year. Her remarks came shortly after summer blackouts and the onset of household gas cuts.
State media later said Pezeshkian ordered mazut use halted at power stations in Arak, Karaj and Isfahan. Yet in several cities, especially Arak, hazardous smog persisted through mid-March, prompting repeated street protests.
Three months after the announced halt, in February, parliamentary agriculture committee spokesperson Somayeh Rafiei said all thermal plants had shifted to mazut.
In a separate August report, business outlet Tejarat News assessed mazut as an “official and relied-upon” tool in managing the energy crisis, adding that it had remained in use the previous year despite official assurances.
Tehran imposes emergency school closures
Tehran’s emergency air-quality task force met on Sunday at the health ministry’s request and approved online schooling for primary classes across the province on Tuesday and Wednesday.
The decision followed forecasts indicating that pollution would intensify through the week, task force secretary Hassan Abbasnejad said.
“After reviewing reports from the environment department, the medical university and the meteorological organization, it was decided that primary classes will be held virtually,” Abbasnejad said.
Daycare centers and preschools in districts classified as unhealthy for all groups would shut, and female employees with young children could work remotely, he added.
Calls to phase out ageing vehicles, invest in cleaner energy and bolster a central environmental authority have so far gone unanswered. Critics say that without systemic change, major cities, including Tehran, will keep paying the price in hazardous air and lost lives.
As winter inversion deepens, the combination of stagnant air and growing mazut consumption is heightening concerns that Iran’s most polluted weeks may still lie ahead.
