Iran war disrupts vital fuel smuggling lifeline for Pakistan’s Balochistan region

Quetta – (Web Desk) – For years, Abdul Rauf, 29, has been buying Iranian fuel from Quetta’s Hazar Ganji market. He lives on Brewery Road and earns a living by selling the cheaper petrol brought from Iran.

Now, even finding 300 liters to run his business takes hours.

The fuel trade in Balochistan has been going on for decades. People buy Iranian fuel because it is cheaper than Pakistani petrol. But the trade has been disrupted since war broke out in Iran after U.S. and Israeli strikes on Feb. 28.

Pakistan and Iran share a long border of 909 kilometers in Balochistan. Many communities on both sides rely on trade, formal and informal, for their daily income. Jobs are scarce, and poverty is common here.

“We are badly affected because the border is closed. I couldn’t find a single gallon of fuel,” Rauf told Arab News. He rides a small Zaranj motorbike to search for fuel.

Since the war, the price of one liter of Iranian fuel has jumped from Rs160 ($0.57) to Rs255 ($0.91). At the start of the conflict, it even reached Rs300 ($1.07).

Rauf earns about Rs3,000 ($10.74) a day transporting fuel. But now, he often rides around with empty containers.

“I have been riding with empty gallons. No one is selling fuel because of the shortage. If the war continues, we will sit home with nothing. We have no other work,” he said.

For years, Iranian petrol and diesel have been flowing into Balochistan through informal channels. Some of it is used locally, while the rest moves to Sindh. The trade continues because the border is hard to police, and many people rely on it to earn a living.

Local dealers say Iran used to supply more than one million liters a day to Pakistan informally. Government reports in 2024 estimated about 5 to 6 million liters were entering daily. This is down from previous estimates of 15 to 20 million liters.

Abdul Ghaffar, a government employee who also drives an auto-rickshaw, said the shortage is hitting daily life.

“If Iranian fuel stops completely, people may have to use bicycles. Pakistani petrol is too expensive now,” he said.

“We depend on Iranian goods. When the supply stops, life becomes very hard here.”

The war has also disrupted legal trade between the two countries, which have in recent years sought to strengthen economic ties and establish border markets to serve frontier communities.

According to the Quetta Chamber of Commerce, Pakistan exports about $800 million worth of goods annually to Iran and imports approximately $3.5 billion. The two countries have also said they aim to increase bilateral trade to $10 billion.

Muhammad Ayoub Miryani, president of the Quetta Chamber of Commerce, said the conflict had severely affected cross-border commerce.

“Both our export and import are currently halted, leading to major losses to the traders,” he told Arab News.

“People will suffer as 95 percent of Pak-Iran trade is affected in this war, import-export targets will not be met, and more people will fall below the poverty line.”

One of the items Pakistan has long imported from Iran is liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) to meet domestic demand. According to the Observatory of Economic Complexity, Pakistan imported LPG worth $687 million from Iran in 2024.

Hajji Shoukat Essazai, an LPG importer in Taftan, said shipments had dropped sharply since the war began.

“Before the war, 100 to 150 LPG bowsers weighing 22 tons of petroleum gas were crossing into Pakistan through Taftan border but now the numbers have dropped to 15 to 25,” he told Arab News.

Essazai, who has been in the business for three decades, said he now receives only a handful of trucks each day.

“Only those who had existing stocks of LPG or food items are still doing business, nothing new is coming through Iran,” he said.

Naik Muhammad, an LPG seller in Quetta’s Alamdar Road market, said rising prices were already pushing customers away.

“The price of a 50kg LPG cylinder has increased from Rs12,000 [$42.98] to Rs16,000 [$57.31],” he said. “We have stock for the people till Eid Al-Fitr, but if the war continues, LPG will vanish from Quetta after Eid.”

Local authorities confirmed the conflict has slowed commercial traffic along the border.

Jahanzaib Shanwani, deputy commissioner of Chaghi district, said traders and drivers on both sides were increasingly reluctant to move goods.

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“Pakistani drivers are hesitating to go toward Iran and the Iranian themselves are not bringing commodities and other items toward Pakistan,” he told Arab News.

“We are trying our best to let the trade continue even if it is halted from the Iranian side, because people are engaged with the Pak-Iran trade activities not from today or yesterday but for a very long time.”