Page 9 - MEOG Week 23 2021

MEOG PIPELINES & TRANSPORT MEOG

Iran suggests India

stores oil at Jask

IRAN FOLLOWING the recent completion of Iran’s import capabilities while raising storage capacity
new oil terminal at the port of Jask, the country’s to 30mn barrels.
ambassador to India has suggested to New Delhi Chegeni’s comments followed a statement by
that it build strategic oil reserves at the facility. former Iranian Ambassador to Germany Seyed
Speaking during a webinar on June 7, Ali H. Mousavian, who said that a new version of
Chegeni, said that as progress is made towards the 2015 nuclear deal could be agreed within
a revised Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action the next three weeks, though this appears to be
(JCPOA), the two countries should look to build optimistic.
on their strong ties, particularly in the energy Meanwhile, New Delhi has held off on com-
sector. mitting to the Iran-Pakistan-India (IPI) pipeline
“Having huge oil storage capacity available, and the proposed Iran-India replacement route
with just a short direct sea journey away from because of economic and security concerns.
India, means that it is time to realise construc- Chegeni noted that the removal of sanctions
tion of the Iran-India oil and gas pipeline. India could see India revive its plan to “invest $20bn
also can use Jask port facilities to store its strate- in Chabahar Economic Free Zone (EFZ) for set-
gic crude oil reserve to meet emergency needs in ting up petrochemical and fertilizer plants either
case of disruptions in supply,” he said. independently or through joint ventures with
Jask Oil Terminal currently features the first Iranian public-private companies”.
of several single-point moorings (SPMs) with a India’s Strategic Petroleum Reserves Ltd
design throughput capacity of 1mn barrels per (ISPRL) currently has deals in place with Iran’s
day and was installed 6km offshore Jask for load- regional rivals Saudi Arabia and the UAE for
ing tankers with two 36-inch (914mm) pipelines storing Saudi Aramco and Abu Dhabi National
laid during February linking it to the shore. Oil Co. (ADNOC) crude in India. The company
The terminal port also features an initial 20 holds more than 39mn barrels of crude storage
storage tanks with a total storage capacity of capacity in underground caverns at Mangalore
10mn barrels of crude, with plans in place to (11mn barrels), Visakhapatnam (9.75mn bar-
add three further SPMs to increase export and rels) and Padur (18.3mn barrels).™

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