IOTCO : iran exports major condensate cargo to Japan
Iran says it has started exporting condensate – a form of ultra light oil - from two newly launched phases of its giant South Pars gas field to Japan.
Pirouz Mousavi, the managing director of the National Iranian Oil Terminals Company (NIOTC), was quoted by the media as saying that the consignment sent to Japan contained 160,000 barrels of condensate from South Pars Phases 20 and 21.
Mousavi added that a 300-ton Japanese vessel had taken the consignment from Phases 20 and 21 as well as another from Phases 2, 3, 4 and 5.
He did not specify how much had been loaded from other phases but it could stand at several hundreds of thousands of barrels.
Mousavi further added that the vessel – named Fujikawa – was also to load 650,000 barrels of crude oil from Iran’s Forouzan oil field before leaving for Japan.
Iran announced in December that it was already expanding the market for its condensate – which can be used to make both fuel and plastic.
Masoud Hassani, the managing director of South Pars Gas Complex, told the domestic media at the time that the country had sent its first cargo of one million barrels of condensate to Europe.