BAKU, Azerbaijan, March 28. Several producers in Kazakhstan are considering the possibility of resuming the supply of energy resources via the Trans-Caspian Gas Pipeline to Iran upon a substitution scheme, Trend reports referring to the Argus Media report.
Proceeding from the report, the opportunities of oil suppliers from the Caspian region to transit oil through the Russian ports may be greatly limited by the sanctions. In this regard, exporters are considering alternative routes.
“According to the sources, it will be possible to supply oil via Iran after the easing of international sanctions,” the report said.
Kazakh oil was supplied to Iran upon the swap agreement until 2011. Cheleken oil from Turkmenistan was shipped to Iran upon the substitution scheme from August 2017 until late May 2018.
“The energy resources are supplied to the Iranian port of Neka upon the substitution scheme,” the report said. “These volumes are supplied to Iranian refineries while in return the supplier receives a similar volume of Iranian energy resources in the Persian Gulf.”
According to the report, the market participants stressed that freight rates for oil transportation along the Aktau-Neka route may reach $16-18 per ton.
The traders said that the transshipment of energy resources through Neka costs $10-12 per ton while the cost of replacement services was previously estimated at $16-16.28 per ton (about $2.18-2.45 per barrel).
The design capacity of the terminal, which is owned by the Iranian Oil Terminals Company, which is part of the National Iranian Oil Company, is 10-11.5 million tons of oil and oil products per year.
There are six oil storage tanks with a capacity of 28,000 cubic meters each in the terminal. Three more oil storage tanks in Neka are used for mixing different grades of oil.
The terminal in Neka is connected with the refineries in Tabriz and Tehran by an oil pipeline. The throughput capacity of the pipeline is 370,000 barrels per day (approximately 18 million tons per year) and it is possible to expand it up to 500,000 barrels per day (about 25 million tons per year).