Iran plans to build oil terminal outside Persian Gulf

Head of the Iranian Oil Terminals Company (IOTC) Pirouz Moussavi told the oil ministry's website, Shana, that Iran plans to build a new export terminal at Bandar Jask, on the Sea of Oman coast of Iran. It would be connected to the Caspian Sea port of Neka using a 1 million barrel a day pipeline. Moussavi said the new terminal would enable Iran to export more oil from Caspian producers and provide a fall-back option for Iran's main export terminal at Kharg Island if there were any problems exporting Iran's own oil from the Persian Gulf. "In the event of any type of problem in exporting crude oil from the Kharg terminal, this terminal can provide back up for exports," he said. Moussavi said the planned terminal outside - would have a storage capacity of 20 million barrels and cost around $2.2 billion to build. Kharg has 22 million barrels of storage. Iran has invested in import capacity at its Caspian port of Neka to enable crude swaps with Turkmenistan and Kazakhstan. Iranian oil officials announced a major oil field find in the Caspian Sea over the weekend, with Shana reporting preliminary National Iranian oil Company estimates of up to 10 billion barrels of oil deep under the landlocked sea. The oil field is in deep waters at a depth of 2,460 meters. In the shorter term, Iranian oil minister Rostam Qassemi said on Monday that the country's oil production capacity would increase by 1.5 million bpd by 2015 compared to around 4 million bpd now.