Baku, Azerbaijan, Sept.14
By Fatih Karimov - Trend:
Iran will renovate and expand bunkering facilities on Qeshm and Kharg islands in the Persian Gulf.
Bunkering is the act or process of supplying a ship with fuel.
Abdollah Mollabaqer, an official with the National Iranian Oil Products Distribution Company (NIOPDC), said that the plan needs about $2.2 million, Iran's Shana news agency reported on September 14.
The US dollar exchange rate in Iran is currently about 32,000 rials.
NIOPDC Managing director Mostafa Kashkouli said on April 30 that some 2.85 million tons of fuel oil were supplied to ships in the past year, Iran's Shana news agency reported.
Iran plans to supply 4 million tons of fuel to ships sailing through its neighboring seas in the current Iranian solar year, which began on March 21, 2014, he added.
Supplying fuel oil and gas oil increased by 31 percent and 7 percent, respectively, compared to the year ended in March 2013, he noted.
The value of the supplied fuel amounted to $1.5 billion, he added.
National Iranian Oil Refining & Distribution Company (NIORDC) hasn't published annual fuel production as well as bunkering fuel statistics for last year yet, but according to the company's latest statistics which cover figures until March 2013, Iran supplied 1.804 million liters of fuels to ships.
According to this report, bunkering fuel statistics into foreign ships in a fiscal year to March 2009 was 3.345 million liters.
Iran exported totally 6.1 billion liters of fuel oil as well as 641 million liters of gas oil during the year to March 2013.