“A project to lay a section of the pipeline has already been tendered and the remaining part will be put out to tender in the next few days,” Ali Kardor was also quoted as saying by ISNA on Saturday.
Plans call for laying 1,000 kilometers of oil pipeline from the city of Genaveh in Bushehr Province to the port of Jask to transform Jask into a major oil terminal, which is aimed at easing and speeding up Iran's oil loading and shipment operations.
On the process of the tender held for the construction of the terminal’s crude storage units, Kardor said the tender process has been halted due to foreign investors’ financially underwhelming proposals.
“Plans are in place to launch another tender, but should foreign investors fail to submit attractive proposals, we will turn to local financers,” he added.
Mohammad Saghaei, an Oil Ministry advisor, told NIOC’s official portal this year that the Jask Oil Terminal will have the capacity to store up to 30 million barrels and export 1 million barrels per day of crude oil once completed.
He noted that the terminal is estimated to cost upwards of $2 billion and be completed by 2021.
The terminal is part of a development plan in the region, which includes the construction of two refineries, a petrochemical complex and oil storage units with a total capacity of 10 million barrels in the first phase and 30 million barrels in the second.
The terminal could ease the load of tanker traffic at Kharg Oil Terminal off the Persian Gulf coast that is responsible for more than 90% of Iranian oil exports.