Tehran, Iran, January 7
By Mehdi Sepahvand - Trend:
Iranian Kharg Terminal is getting ready to receive big tankers, once the sanctions on Iran are lifted.
Right now nine tankers can simultaneously berth at Kharg Terminal, which is able to receive giant tankers with 360 barrels capacity, Qolamhossein Gerami, an official with Iran's Oil Terminals Company said.
Referring to Kharg as the biggest oil terminal in Iran, he said the terminal is currently responsible for letting through 94 percent of Iran's exported oil, Mehr news agency reported January 6.
Oil is pumped through five pipelines to the terminal and stored in reservoirs as big as one million barrels, he explained.
He said the terminal is able to store 28 million barrels of oil, both light and heavy.
At the eastern terminal, with a T pier, six tankers can birth at the same time and receive 67,500 barrels of oil per hour, the official further said.
The pier's waterline is 21 meters and can serve tankers with capacities of 275 thousand metric tons, he noted.
According to the official, the western front can receive three tankers at a time and transfer 360 thousand barrels of oil in one hour.
The pier's waterline is about 30 meters and is therefore able to serve the biggest tankers there is, he stated.
Iran is expecting the removal of sanctions by January's end to boost its oil export from one million barrels a day back to over two million which used to be its output before the sanctions.
Using existing facilities, Iran can export 2.35 million barrels of oil a day.