Page 43 - IRANRptAug20

Iran’s oil minister says ‘no one wants to work with us’
Iran’s Rouhani says country plans to export oil from Gulf of Oman coast by March 2021
an average of 45mn litres of petroleum and 17mn litres of diesel/gas-oil.
Iran's oil exports are 400,000-500,000 bpd, the minister hinted.
Taking into account US sanctions, Iran has purposefully obfuscated and not provided accurate information on the indicators of oil production and exports. bne IntelliNews​ spoke with an independent oil tanker-tracking company, TankerTrackers.com, who stated that according to its estimates, Iran exported some 840,000 bpd in June of both crude and condensate.
China and other East Asia countries continue to be the biggest purchasers of Iranian crude and condensates, according to the company on July 28.
There’s now not a country in the world that will work with Iran in its oil and gas industry due to the threat posed by US sanctions, Iranian Oil Minister Bijan Namdar Zanganeh said during the signing of documents for a new oil field development project, ​official energy news agency SHANA has reported.
Foreign energy companies—most notably French major Total—have pulled out of the country since the reimposition of US sanctions in 2018. That has forced industry development work back into the hands of Iranian companies.
"No country is ready to sign agreements with us," Zanganeh was quoted as saying
He added that in oil and gas "Iran is ready to cooperate with any country except Israel."
Zanganeh made the remarks on the sidelines of a contract signing for the $961mn completion of the development of South Azadegan field by Iranian companies Petropars and Petroleum Engineering and Development Company (PEDEC).
The companies’ work at South Azadegan will include the building of a 320,000 b/d central treatment export plant (CTEP).
Iran plans to raise the daily oil production capacity of the field to 320,000 b/d within 30 months.
The South Azadegan project involves drilling 35 wells, installing 50 downhole ESP pumps, completing eight manifolds, completing two intermediate separation plants and constructing 328 km of flow pipelines, 45 km of communication pipelines and 65 km of gas and crude oil transmission pipelines running from the CTEP to the West Karun Pumping House and NGL 3200.
The parties to the contract said the CTEP would process 320,000 b/d and would thus be the largest such processing unit in Iran.
Azadegan is one of Iran’s best producing oil fields. Its estimated capacity​ ​is more than 53bn barrels of crude​.
Iran has plans to export oil from a port on its Gulf of Oman coast by March next year, the country’s president, Hassan Rouhani, has said.
The use of such a port would enable Iran to avoid sending shipments via the Strait of Hormuz, a chokepoint leading to the Persian Gulf via which around a fifth of oil exports to world markets are shipped. Iran has periodically threatened to block the Strait if its crude exports were unacceptably harmed by US sanctions, while Washington has said such a move would require a response.
“This is a strategic decision and an important step for Iran that will secure the continuation of our oil exports,” President Hassan Rouhani said in a televised speech in which he announced the planned upcoming use of the alternative port.
Providing more details, Rouhani said Iran aimed to export 1mn barrels per day (b/d) of oil by March from Bandar-e Jask, a port on the Gulf of Oman, just
43​ IRAN Country Report August 2020 www.intellinews.com