Four years have passed since oil cargoes were last delivered to this terminal. But Shahdoust believes that its equipment is fully ready for operation.
“Currently we have three jetties which handle offloading of oil. The three jetties are able to offload oil at the same time. During years swap operations were on hold, the equipment used in the jetties was rebuilt from A to Z and there is currently no problem in this regard,” he said.
He added that oil tankers navigating in the Caspian Sea have the capacity of up to 75,000 tons with their draft varying between 4 and 4.5 meters.
Neka oil terminal’s current capacity stands at 120,000 b/d, which is planned to increase in coming years.
“We will start with such a force when we resume swap operations,” said Shahdoust.
He added that the capacity of oil swap operations had been planned to increase from 120,000 b/d to 500,000 b/d and finally 1 mb/d and 1.5 mb/d.
He said that National Iranian Tanker Company (NITC) had also planned to establish 14 more jetties.
Regarding the technical specifications of the terminal, Shahdoust said the basin has a wave-breaker wall whose western side is 2,400 meters and whose eastern wall is 1,720 meters offshore.
It is the largest stone structure in northern Iran with an area of 300 ha. The first phase of the project is now complete at 90% and the rest will continue as soon as swap operations resume.
Shahdoust also said that the current three jetties have the capacity to offload 120,000 b/d of crude oil.
“Of course, in certain cases we have offloaded up to 250,000 b/d. Furthermore, the pipeline connected to this terminal has the capacity to transfer 500,000 b/d. This oil is transferred to Tehran refinery,” he said.