Page 6 - MEOG Week 11 2021

MEOG PIPELINES & TRANSPORT MEOG

Iran’s oil exports to China

expected to ‘surge’ in March

IRAN IRANIAN crude exports to China are report- accommodate the country’s maximum oil out-
edly surging and are expected to hit record highs put of around 3.9mn to 4mn bpd.
in March despite the fact that US sanctions
imposed under former president Donald Trump Facilities expand
with the stated purpose of driving Iran’s oil ship- At present Iran’s Kharg Island terminal in the
ments to zero are still in place. Gulf accounts for around 90% of the country’s oil
It is anticipated that Chinese imports of Ira- exports, however, reliance on the facility is set to
nian crude will hit 856,000 bpd in March, the be eased once a new export facility at Jask comes
most in almost two years and up 129% month- into operation.
on-month, Bloomberg reported traders and Envisioned by President Hassan Rouhani as
analysts as saying. Various other news outlets “Iran’s key hub of oil exports”, the Jask Oil Ter-
reported during the week that so much Ira- minal Project in the southern Hormozgan Prov-
nian oil was arriving in China that its ports and ince reached another milestone last week as work
storage tanks were getting clogged up. This was began to install the facility’s first single-point
particularly said to be the case in the province of mooring (SPM) in the Sea of Oman.
Shandong, which accounts for a quarter of Chi- According to Vahid Maleki, head of the Jask
na’s refining capacity. development for Pars Oil and Gas Co. (POGC),
“The surge is related to lower costs but also, the project is now 90% complete.
politically, to a sense that this might be an interim He was quoted by Iran’s official energy sector
period between the outgoing [Trump] adminis- media outlet Shana as saying that installation of
tration and the Biden administration figuring the “pipeline end manifold (PLEM) has been
out its position on Iran,” Michal Meidan, direc- completed with the Sea Master barge at a depth
tor of the China Energy Program at the Oxford of 48 metres on the seabed”, adding that work
Institute for Energy Studies, was cited as saying to install the first SPM 6km from the shore had
by Bloomberg. begun immediately.
In late January, on the sidelines of the Iran The unit has a capacity of 1mn bpd and instal-
Oil Show in Tehran, Iran’s Deputy Oil Minister lation is anticipated by the conclusion of the
Amir Hossein Zamaninia said that Iranian oil current Iranian calendar year, which ends next
would not create any surplus on the world oil week. The terminal is being developed at a cost
market and that the market would be able to of around $315mn.™

P6 www. NEWSBASE .com Week 11 17•March•2021