Page 8 - MEOG Week 06 2021

MEOG PIPELINES & TRANSPORT MEOG

Iran to link Qeshm island to gas network

IRAN THE National Iranian Gas Co. (NIGC) is mov- inaugurated by President Hassan Rouhani and
ing forward with the construction of a new direct will contribute 3.24mn barrels from six tanks.
gas pipeline connecting the southern island of Construction on the $178mn project began in
Qeshm in the Indian Ocean with the mainland. December 2019 and has been carried out by local
The 59-km pipeline will be the first conduit contractors in the private sector.
to connect the free trade zone which recently The second phase will double capacity
became a new petrochemical hub, allowing through the addition of another seven tanks and
access to international markets without travers- is anticipated to be finished during Q1 2021.
ing the Strait of Hormuz. In September, it was reported that the ter-
Recently the island was also connected by minal would be connected to the Gevarzin gas
bridge to the mainland. processing plant via a 22-km pipeline, allowing
“For the construction of this gas pipeline, for the direct transfer of oil and refined products
about [$30mn] and about 2 trillion rials of finan- between Qeshm and the Bandar Abbas and Per-
cial resources have been provided, while the sian Gulf Star refineries.
parts and pipes have been supplied, the contrac- In 2018, the Iranian Offshore Oil Co. (IOOC)
tor has been selected and the construction of the inaugurated a gas plant on Qeshm to process
pipeline has started,” Mohsen Mazlum Farsibaf, 80mn cubic metres per day of natural gas which
direct of research and technology at NIGC, told was previously flared at the Hengam oilfield.™
IRNA on February 8.
The pipeline will connect to the Direstan
terminal being built on a 1.8-square km site on
the island’s southern edge that will add around
6.5mn barrels to Iran’s onshore liquids storage
capacity, raising the total storage capacity to
around 103mn barrels.
The first phase of Direstan terminal was

Impact of pipeline on Suez Canal limited

ISRAEL/UAE EGYPT expects the return of Israel’s Eilat-Ash- Suez Canal. Discussions were reported to have
kelon crude oil pipeline to operation will have a been held between Eilat Ashkelon Pipeline Co.
limited impact on Suez Canal revenues, affecting (EAPC) and Israel’s Ministries of Defence and
less than 1% of the waterway’s annual income, Foreign Affairs.
the Suez Canal Authority (SCA) reportedly said The talks follow the recent peace deal signed
in a media statement. between Israel and the UAE, which noted that
The pipeline is expected to have an impact energy would be one of the areas of potential
on only 12% to 16% of the crude oil travelling to cooperation between the two countries.
the north, which constitutes 0.61% of total ship- Ahead of proposing the move, EAPC recently
ments going through the Suez Canal, roughly restyled itself as the Europe Asia Pipeline Co.,
equivalent to the amount of oil from the UAE while the company’s deputy manager of com-
that transits the canal. merce and marketing Effie Milutin told S&P
The rest of the traffic through the strategic Platts: “The geopolitical risks in the Persian Gulf
waterway, the shortest transport route between region only increase the attractiveness of the
Europe and Asia, consists of container ships EAPC system.”
making up 50% of revenues, while dry bulk is The new old pipeline, first built in the 1960s
17% and car carriers 4%. Petroleum products to transport Iranian oil to Israel, is being repur-
account for 12% and LNG for 5% of total rev- posed by its new owner the Europe Asia Pipeline
enue. Crude oil income comprises only 6.5% of Co. to help RED MED Land Bridge Co., a joint
the canal’s total annual revenue of $5.61bn in venture between Israel and the UAE, to transport
2020, according to the SCA. UAE-origin crude oil and oil-related products
The announcement follows reports in Sep- from the Red Sea to the Mediterranean.
tember that Israel and the UAE would con- MED-RED is jointly owned by Petromal, part
necting Israel directly with oil production in of Abu Dhabi-based National Holding, Israeli
the Gulf allowing for cargoes to be exported company AF Entrepreneurship, and interna-
to Europe and North America without having tional infrastructure and energy company Lub-
to pass through the Strait of Hormuz nor the ber Line.™

P8 www. NEWSBASE .com Week 06 10•February•2021