Gholam-Abbas Heidari, managing director of Asalouyeh Export Terminal, referred to progress in expanding the terminal's infrastructure and said, “Three very large vessels can simultaneously berth in Asalouyeh using SBMs,” Shana reported.
SBMs can connect to vessels of any size for loading crude. Undersea pipelines join the SBMs via pipes known as risers that carry crude to the surface from which point the fuel is transferred to tankers through flexible hoses.
Heidari noted that Kharg Oil Terminal, from which more than 90% of Iran’s crude is shipped, recently carried out operations to load 10 tankers with oil and condensate, indicating that the Iranian Oil Terminals Company is on a mission to boost oil and gas export capacity.
Iran's major condensate buyers include China, Japan, South Korea, the UAE and Poland.
According to the head of customs at Pars Special Economic Energy Zone, over 1.28 million tons of gas condensates, worth about $504 million, were exported between Oct. 23-Nov. 21 from South Pars, the world's largest gas field, shared between Iran and Qatar, IRNA reported.
Ahmad Pourheidar added that gas condensate export shows a 4% rise in terms of both volume and value compared with the similar period of last year.
Iran produced close to 115 million barrels of condensates, or nearly 530,000 barrels a day, in the first seven months of the present fiscal (March 21-Oct. 22).
Condensate output is slated to reach 1 million barrels a day upon the launch of all phases of South Pars. But Tehran has said it wants to reduce the outbound shipments of condensates and instead use the fossil fuel for manufacturing goods with higher value added.