TEHRAN, June 27: Angry Iranians torched petrol stations and raised slogans against President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s government after the world’s fourth-largest oil exporter said it was imposing fuel rationing on Wednesday.

One Iranian news agency, ISNA, quoted an official as saying that 19 gasoline stations were set ablaze overnight in Tehran after the government’s announcement late on Tuesday that rationing would start from midnight.

Police detained 80 people in the capital over the unrest, the Fars News Agency quoted a judge as saying.

“We are swimming in oil and all they do is just put pressure on people,” said taxi driver Hasan Mohammadi, 44. “I’m using my last drop of gasoline.”

Despite its huge energy reserves, Iran lacks refining capacity and must import about 40 per cent of its gasoline, a sensitive issue when world powers have threatened new UN sanctions in a row with Tehran over its nuclear programme.

Concerns that Iranian imports would decline pushed down European gasoline prices on Wednesday, international traders said.

Some drivers scuffled while waiting to fill up their tanks before rationing began. Others chanted anti-government slogans and openly criticised Ahmadinejad, who came to power two years ago vowing to share out Iran’s oil wealth more fairly.

“Last night, in addition to setting fire to and stealing property of 19 fuel stations in Tehran, people threw stones and damaged others,” Bijan Haj Mohammadreza, head of an association representing gasoline stations, told ISNA.

Seeking to rein in soaring consumption and costly imports, the government on May 22 raised the litre price by 25 per cent to 1,000 rials — still among the cheapest in the world — but rationing was delayed.—Reuters