Polish Firm, National Iranian Tanker Co Discuss Marine Cooperation

CIECH Trading, Poland’s largest distributor of raw materials and chemical products, is willing to cooperate with the National Iranian Tanker Co. in marine transportation.

After talks with Sirous Kianersi, the chief executive of NITC in Tehran on Thursday, president of the CIECH board of directors, Tomasz Grzela, said that the company is interested in investments in Iran in bunkering (supply of fuel for use by ships in a seaport) and transporting LNG, LPG and petrochemicals, IRNA reported.

Grzela proposed setting up a joint committee to boost ties between the two sides.

Underscoring joint oil cooperation in the post-sanction’s era, Kianersi noted, “The ground has been paved for expansion of collaboration with Polish firms in a wide range of sectors, including marine transport and shipping liquefied gas and petrochemicals.

According to Kianersi, in line with plans to expand the Iranian fleet of oil tankers and supertankers, NITC is planning to increase the number of ships to carry liquefied gas, including LNG and LPG.

The official also noted that NITC and CIECH Trading can also build long-term cooperation to transport LNG and LPG.

Based in Warsaw, CIECH Trading was established in 1987. It is one of the largest Polish firms  involved in the supply of chemicals.

Tehran hopes that establishing small-scale and floating LNG production units with output capacity of 10 million tons per year will help it break into the international LNG market that reportedly has a 30% share in the total global gas trade.

The NITC chief also said that the company has plans to develop the fledgling LNG industry and that talks on building FLNG units with foreign companies would come to fruition in the near future.

According to reports, Iran is negotiating with Norwegian firms to set up an FLNG unit in the Persian Gulf.

“We are in the final stages of negotiations to hand over the ownership of an FLNG project to a Norwegian firm,” he said in a statement last month. An FLNG facility is a seaborne structure that can produce, liquefy, store and transfer LNG at sea before ships carry it directly to markets.