Azerbaijan, Baku, Aug.17/ Trend F.Karimov/
Iran plans to store 10 million barrels of oil in 10 underground facilities for strategic uses, domestic consumption, and exports, ILNA quoted executive director of the plan, Ali Vatani, as saying.
To date, 50 places have been identified for the purpose of storage, he said, adding that 10 places will be finally announced by the National Iranian Oil Company.
"The 10 places will be near oil pipelines and will be in suitable locations in terms of security," he noted. "The places will be introduced to the NIOC in the calendar month of Aban (Oct. 23-Nov. 21)".
Iranian oil minister Bijan Namdar Zanganeh has previously outlined prioritized plans of the ministry.
"Boosting Iran's oil output to 4 million barrels per day and promoting diplomatic bargaining in cooperation with ministry of foreign affairs to lessen the effects of the international sanctions will be among the most important plans," he said.
Developing joint oil and gas fields, especially the South Pars gas field, and resuming swap of oil will be other prioritized plans, are included in the plans, Zanganeh said.
Moreover, a special committee should be formed to find new markets for oil products, he said, adding that gasoline production unit sin Isfahan, Tabriz, and Bandar Abbas refineries projects will be completed and will come on stream as soon as possible, the minister said.
Reuters reported on April 24 that Iran is storing millions of barrels of oil in tankers in its territorial waters as Tehran struggles with tougher Western sanctions on its vital seaborne exports, ship industry sources say.
Iran's oil revenues have fallen by about 50 percent since tough EU and U.S. measures were imposed last year. This is hurting business and cutting living standards for ordinary Iranians.
Ship industry sources gave varying estimates on how much oil Iran was storing at sea, but all said the volume was higher.
Data from maritime intelligence publisher IHS Fairplay estimated 10 of Iran's supertankers, each able to carry up to 2 million barrels of crude, were storing oil, together with one smaller tanker able to carry up to 1 million barrels.
The data showed that two additional supertankers were also likely to be deployed on floating storage, based on the length of time they were stationary, meaning as much as 25 million barrels in total.
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