Construction of Jask Export Terminal has registered 40% progress, the oil minister said at the weekend.
“We hope the project will be completed by the end of the year (March 2021) so that exports begin from this terminal,” Bijan Namdar Zanganeh was quoted as saying by the Oil Ministry news agency Shana.
Work is in progress to build the Goureh-Jask crude oil pipeline, which stretches over 1,000 kilometers from Goureh in Bushehr Province, to Jask in Hormuzgan Province, where the largest oil export terminal after Kharg is being constructed.
The pipes are being built by three Iranian companies. "Of the 1,000 km, pipes for over 400 kilometers have been manufactured and laying has begun,” he added.
Ahvaz Industrial Pipe Company, Isfahan-based Mobarakeh Steel Company and Khouzestan Oxin Steel Company have joined hands to produce the pipelines.
Raw materials for producing the pipes are supplied by Mobarakeh company and are made into special steel sheets in Oxin company. The pipes are manufactured in Ahvaz.
Kharg Terminal in the Persian Gulf has been Iran’s main oil export terminal for decades. Jask will be another major site with the advantage that oil tankers need not pass through the narrow and permanently clogged Strait of Hormuz
Mobarakeh Steel has delivered 320,000 tons of sheet metal from the 420,000 tons, and Oxin Steel has sold 250,000 tons of sheets from 385,000 tons so far. Pipe manufacturers have produced 440 km of the planned 1,000 km so far, of which 350 kilometers have been transported to sites and are being welded and laid.
The minister added that the Persian Gulf Star Refinery will be connected to the pipeline to supply 600,000 to 700,000 barrels of gas condensate a day. “Once this part of the project is complete, gas condensate can also be exported through Jask."
"Approximately $300 million has been invested in the project, and another $850 million is needed” to get the job done, Zanganeh said.
When ready, Jask Oil Terminal will store 30 million barrels of crude oil and export one million.
Kharg Terminal in the Persian Gulf has been Iran’s main oil export terminal for decades. Jask will be another major site with the advantage that oil tankers need not pass through the narrow and permanently clogged Strait of Hormuz.
The major project is on track while Iran’s oil exports have dropped drastically since Donald Trump announced tough new economic sanctions.
Openly hostile and beleaguered, the US president walked away from the historic Iran nuclear deal with world powers in the summer of 2018. He claimed he wants a new and comprehensive agreement. Tehran dismissed his stance as preposterous.
The exact volume of Iran’s oil exports are not known, but according to S&P Global Platts, crude exports in September 2019 were at 400,000 barrel per day, down from 1.95 million bpd in the same month in 2018.
