Call on Dutch Firms to Help Develop Oil Terminals

Dutch companies can cooperate with the Iranian Oil Terminals Company to develop and expand loading ports as Iran presses ahead with plans to boost crude shipments from its southern ports, head of IOTC said on Wednesday.

Introducing investment opportunities in Iran's oil sector on the sidelines of the Netherlands 2016 Offshore Energy Exhibition & Conference (OEEC) in Amsterdam, Pirouz Mousavi said, "Dutch investors, engineers and other interested enterprises within the offshore energy sector can contribute to renovating Iran's piers and constructing loading arms, oil storage installations and single point mooring (SPM)," Shana reported.

According to the official, most of the SPMs (floating jetties anchored offshore to allow handling of liquid cargos) which are being used at Iranian oil terminals are made by Dutch companies and "that's why they can be among top choices to embark on oil terminal renovation projects."

Cooperation with Dutch enterprises can help Iran acquire the much-needed knowhow for maintenance of SPMs, some of which are now decommissioned.

Underscoring Dutch companies' access to state-of-the-art knowhow regarding both onshore and offshore installations, the official added that talks are being held with the said firms.

Stressing that the port of Rotterdam has been one of the world’s major centers for trading oil and chemicals for decades, Mousavi noted that the Dutch port has a lot in common with Kharg Oil Terminal 25 km off the Iranian coast in the strategic Persian Gulf.

Pierre Bartholomeus, a member of the advisory board of Dutch Energy Solutions (DES) spoke about the Dutch entrepreneurship program for Iran.

“We are developing a program for Iran whose duration is three years and we would like to focus on the oil, gas, and power industry.”

Bartholomeus added, “Potential in Iran is huge and rationale behind our program is that we want to help Iran because they are looking for a new technology transfer, and we want to help them in building their own new oil and gas industry.”

OEEC is the only dedicated offshore energy event in the Netherlands. The annual event, held on Oct. 25-26 in Amsterdam, was focused on the offshore energy industry, ranging from the oil and gas to wind and marine energy.

Underscoring the engineering work on the first marine loading arm for use in Kharg Oil Terminal, which is in the final stages, Mousavi noted, "It is the first mechanical loading arm to be built in Iran that is an essential piece of equipment for loading crude oil."

More than 90% of Iran's oil exports are handled from Kharg Island which has a total storage capacity of about 28 million barrels.

"Ten supertankers, four in Azarpad and six in T-head loading arms, can berth simultaneously and load Iran's oil. Six million barrels can be exported from the terminal per day," he said, adding that ship-to-ship crude transfer operations were launched in June to accommodate the steadily growing demand for Iranian crude.

Due to the surge in Iran's oil and gas condensate exports that have reached 2.8 million barrels per day, oil officials have plans to develop oil terminal facilities in the Persian Gulf to meet the urgent need.