Baku, Azerbaijan, Sept. 18
By Fatih Karimov– Trend:
Iran plans to increase the volume of crude oil swap with Caspian states to 40,000 barrels per day by end of 2017, Sirafkan Ghorbani, an official with the National Iranian Oil Pipelines and Telecommunication Company, said.
The volume currently stands at averagely 10,000 barrels per day, Ghorbani said, Iranian Oil Ministry’s official website reported Sept. 18.
Back in August Iran confirmed that has received several oil cargoes from Turkmenistan in the Neka port.
Ghorbani said that the volume of oil swap is planed to reach 200,000 b/d in 2018.
The official further noted that over 720,000 barrels of crude oil, unloaded in Neka port, is delivered to Tehran and Tabriz refineries from the beginning of the crude oil swap last month.
The companies deliver oil to the Neka port for being used in Tabriz and Tehran refineries, located in northern Iran, and take the same amount of Iranian oil in Persian Gulf.
Ghorbani said that the aforementioned volume is transferred in stages through the 32-inch Neka-Sari-Rey oil pipeline.
At the moment, the pipeline and the related facilities have capacity to transfer 370,000 barrels of crude oil per day, however it can be increased to 500,000 barrels, he added.
Earlier, on Aug. 9, a source in Azerbaijan’s oil and gas market told Trend that Dragon Oil and Emirates National Oil Company (ENOC) had delivered the second Turkmen oil cargo to Iran.
Iran stopped oil swaps with Caspian countries seven years ago after 10 years of operations which brought $800 million in revenues to Iran.
