Hamid Reza Shahdoust who was talking to reporters on Wednesday about oil swap with the Caspian Sea littoral countries, said that currently the company had 3 storage facilities out of a total of 9 under repair and overhaul; “when the repair renders the storage facilities operable, a daily capacity of 120-130,000 barrels of crude will be added to Iran’s swapping capabilities; the 3-stage grand project underway will also catapult the total swap capacity to 500,000, 1 million, and 2.5 million barrels per day gradually,” he detailed.
“The grand project will include design and building of 14 wharves, pipeline, and storage facilities, which will make possible harboring of gigantic oil tankers in northern oil terminals,” Shahdoust told reporters. “Currently, with available facilities, each wharf with two ports receives 820 cubic meters of crude oil per hour; however, the acting fleet of oil tankers would only unload 700 cubic meters of crude per hour, and this slows the swap process.”
“The first phase of building eastern and western breakwaters has almost been completed; all tankers in the Caspian sea have a capacity of 37-38,000 barrels of crude oil (5-7,000 tons); the first phase will welcome 12,000-barrel tankers to Northern Oil Terminals,” he predicted. “The northern terminals are prepared for oil swap with littoral countries and no restrictions would create difficulties in the swapping process,” Shahdoust concluded.