Following completion of a key oil export pipeline that bypasses the Strait of Hormuz, the National Iranian Oil Company will start exporting crude oil from its new terminal at Jask off the Oman Sea in June, the oil minister said.
"Construction of the 1,000 km Goureh-Jask oil pipeline that stretches from Goureh Oil Terminal in Bushehr Province to Jask Port in Hormozgan Province is over," Bijan Namdar Zanganeh was quoted as saying by the Oil Ministry news service.
In the first phase, the conduit will carry 300,000 barrels of crude per day from the West Karun oil fields to the southern coast on the Sea of Oman, he said.
The second phase calls for more pumping stations to boost the pipeline’s capacity to 1 million barrels per day.
Iran decided to build a sister facility for the main Kharg Oil Terminal after the Strait of Hormuz shipping chokepoint became the focus of military tensions between Iran and the US and several tankers were hit by mines or in other attacks.
Attacks on vessels in the strategic Strait of Hormuz, the shipping lane that carries about a fifth of the world’s oil, have raised concerns about how disruptive a conflict in the Persian Gulf could be for the global oil trade.
Work on the $1.1 billion Goureh-Jask pipeline started in June 2020.
The Goureh facility receives heavy oil from the south and southwestern regions and transfers it to the Kharg terminal.