TEHRAN, Dec 20 (NNN-IRNA) – All fuel stations across Iran have resumed supply services offline, yesterday, following a large-scale disruption that occurred on Monday due to a technical problem, said Managing Director of the National Iranian Oil Products Distribution Company (NIOPDC), Jafar Salari-Nasab.
He made the remarks yesterday, in an interview with Shana News Agency, which is affiliated to the Iranian Oil Ministry, while commenting on the recovery of the country’s fuel distribution system, from Monday’s incident.
Salari-Nasab said, 60 percent of the country’s fuel stations had been connected to the online smart fuel distribution system, adding, 800 teams are working to resume online supply services of the remaining stations, and “over 90 percent of which are expected to be connected to the online system by the end of yesterday.”
On Monday, Salari-Nasab said, supply services were interrupted at more than 4,200 fuel stations across the country, and 2,750 fuel stations had become operational manually by 17:00 local time (1330 GMT).
Jalil Salari, CEO of the National Iranian Oil Refining and Distribution Company (NIORDC), told local media on Monday that, the fuel supply disruption, which affected at least 60 percent of the country’s stations, was due to the malfunction of the point-of-sale systems and online payment.
The NIORDC said in a statement that, the technical malfunction had been caused by “enemies’ conspiracies to impact Iranian people’s welfare.”
Following the interruption in supply services, Israeli media reported Monday that, the Iranian fuel stations’ shutdown was a result of a cyberattack by an Israel-linked hacker group, dubbed “Gonjeshke Darande,” or “Predatory Sparrow,” which in 2022, claimed to have hacked a major steel company in south-western Iran.
Later in the day, Iran’s Passive Defence Organisation said in a statement that, it was still unable to verify if a cyberattack was to blame for the supply disruption.
The organisation added, it was investigating the possible causes, “including infiltration and hacking,” noting that the final results of its investigations would be announced within the next few days.– NNN-IRNA
