Analysts and traders say Iran will need to import as much as $1 billion of gasoline once the sanctions against the country are lifted – what is largely expected to occur in the first half of 2016.

The lifting of the sanctions will push Iran’s demand for gasoline by at least 20 percent, Bloomberg reported.  That would be equal to 50,000 barrels a day of the crucial fuel.

The country’s current imports stand at 41,000 barrels a day, the report added.

The US and European Union restricted oil companies and traders from doing business with Iran, which agreed in July to a breakthrough with the P5+1 group of countries to limit certain aspects of its nuclear energy activities in return for the removal of certain economic sanctions.

Iran’s gasoline imports slumped to almost zero in 2012 from more than 100,000 barrels a day before 2010, Bloomberg reported.

The drop coincided with tighter curbs by the US and EU on trade in refined products with Iran. The Iranian government responded by trimming fuel subsidies to damp demand and ordering petrochemical plants to produce gasoline.

Iran’s refineries are running at full capacity and are unable to raise output for at least another year. Nevertheless, analysts have told Bloomberg that the country will produce a gasoline surplus as early as the end of 2016 once its new refinery projects are made operational.

Iran specifically relies on its Persian Gulf Star refinery which is under construction in the southern port city of Bandar Abbas with a production capacity of 360,000 barrels per day.

The project which is scheduled to become operational within the next year is expected to make Iran a net exporter of gasoline.