Iran Sets Up 9 Bunker Sites

Bunkering Sector Flourishing

Domestic Economy Desk

Nine bunkering centers have been launched across all Iranian ports and coasts in Persian Gulf, said Alireza Farrokhzad Ershad, head of National Iranian Oil Distribution Company for bunkering affairs.
He put the country’s bunkering revenue at $450 million during March 21-September 22, Mehr News Agency reported.
Close to 1.2 million tons of fuel oil worth $448 million have been sold to ships during the mentioned period, he explained.
Also about 17,000 tons of gasoil has been sold during the mentioned period, he said, adding the quality fuel is delivered to ships on a FOB basis in Persian Gulf.
The official said the country’s bunkering sites are to sell close to four million tons of liquid fuel during the current Iranian year (by March 2011).

Bunkering Sites
He pointed out that nine bunkering sites have been launched in Bandar Abbas (two sites), Kish, Qeshm, Bushehr, Mahshahr, Assalouyeh, Khark and Chabahar.
Upon the order of Oil Minister Masoud Mir-Kazemi, all shipping companies, affiliated to Oil Ministry such as oil tankers should supply the required fuel from domestic bunkering sites, Farrokhzad Ershad said.
Currently fuel oil supplied by Iranian bunkering sites has the highest quality in Persian Gulf market, the official stated. Many foreign ships refer Iranian bunkering sites due to their high quality fuel, he added.
Farrokhzad Ershad mentioned that under the fifth five-year economic development plan (2010-2015), Iran should gain 30 percent of Persian Gulf bunkering market through selling 4.2 million tons of fuel to ships by March 2011.
The country plans to increase its share in the bunkering market to 50 percent next year by supplying ships with 5.54 million tons of fuels, he said.
The figure is to hit 6 million tons by March 2013, he pointed out.
He predicted that the country’s bunkering sites would sell 7.2 million tons of fuel to ships including 6.9 million tons of fuel oil and 301,000 tons of gas oil by March 2014.
Iran must sell 7.5 million tons of liquid fuel to ships by the end of fifth plan (2015), he added.

3,000 Ships Dock
Earlier, Farrokhzad Ershad pointed out that Some 3,000 ships enter the country’s waters in the Persian Gulf annually, 2,000 of them dock in Bandar Abbas Port, 1,000 in Khark Island and the rest at the other southern ports.
He referred to strengthening of the economic power, creating job and making foreign exchange revenue as the goals behind selling fuel to ships.
In related news, Managing Director of National Iranian Oil Product Distribution Company Farid Ameri declared earlier that bunkering is to put into operation in some phases. The first phase is to fill gas tanks of ships. It kicked off three years ago, the official told Shana News Agency, adding it could make $1 billion in southern ports.
The next step would be choosing the contractor for the project. It was already tendered and the contractor was selected in Assalouyeh, Qeshm and Imam Khomeini ports. Capable contractors for other ports like Chabahar are to be chosen in near future, Ameri emphasized.
The company cooperated with Ports and Shipping Organizations for putting this project into operation, he said.
Iran kicked off the bunkering project three years ago in Persian Gulf through constructing the needed infrastructure.

Regional Hubs
Currently, Fujairah bunkering hub, UAE, is the only rival of Iran in Persian Gulf market.
Iran has been succeeded to secure 20 percent of the bunkering market in the Persian Gulf region and the percentage would stand at 50 by the end of the fifth plan (2015), said Road Minister Hamid Behbahani last May
Responding to the reporter’s questions on the sidelines of the 18th gathering of the maritime organizations in Kish, Behbahani said that during the previous years, Iran was sending its oil products to Fujairah for bunkering, but now the country has acquired a remarkable share of the market in the Persian Gulf waters.
He stipulated that by launching new projects, Iran’s share in providing fuel to tankers would rise remarkably.
Stressing that Iranian port should become hub in the Persian Gulf, the minister said given the appropriate infrastructures and long shores in southern part of the country, the condition has been provided for changing Iranian ports to the hub in the region.

Bolivian President in Iran to Seek Investment

Bolivian President Evo Morales arrived in Tehran on Monday on a three-day state visit aimed at securing Iranian investment in the South American country.
Morales was welcomed by Iranian Minister of Industries and Mines Ali Akbar Mehrabian upon his arrival at Tehran’s Mehrabad Airport on Sunday night.
The Bolivian president is scheduled to hold meetings with President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and other senior Iranian officials, Presstv reported.
He intends to encourage Iran to establish a stronger presence in Bolivia and plans to sign cooperation agreements on a number of issues, including the transfer of Iranian technology to the South American nation.
“We are traveling to Iran to expand ties, promote investments, and further enhance cooperation,” Morales said before leaving La Paz for Tehran.
They are also expected to sign agreements covering technology transfer, cement production, industrial machinery and food.
It is the second visit to Iran by Morales in as many years. Ahmadinejad travelled to Bolivia in 2007 for the visit by an Iranian president.
During his trip, the two governments agreed joint projects worth $1.1 billion over the next five years.
The visit by Morales comes less than a week after Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez made a two-day visit.
Morales traveled to northwestern city of Tabriz on Monday to visit some industrial units, and will officially meet with his Iranian counterpart Mahmoud Ahmadinejad at the presidential office on Tuesday.
Iran and Bolivia have developed close ties since Ahmadinejad took office in 2005.
In November, Morales and visiting Ahmadinejad signed a series of agreements in La Paz to enhance bilateral ties and deepen cooperation.

$5b Gas Deal With Foreign Firm Planned

Iran will soon sign a $5 billion contract with a foreign company to develop its offshore Farzad-B gas field, managing director of the National Iranian Offshore Oil Company (NIOOC) announced.
“Currently negotiation for the investment and development of this gas field in the Persian Gulf is at its final stage,” Mahmoud Zirakchianzadeh told Shana on Monday.
Zirakchianzadeh said an initial agreement on developing the gas field on a buyback basis had already been signed with the foreign company which has already secured all the necessary permits.
The announcement comes after many Western energy companies have turned away from Iran due to sanctions imposed to pressure Tehran over its nuclear program.
Iran has often said it has no shortage of willing international partners outside Europe and the United States which have imposed the sanctions.
Shana reported on Sunday that Venezuela was set to invest $780 million in the development of phase 12 of Iran’s giant South Pars gas field.
Zirakchianzadeh said the field’s in-place gas reserves have been estimated at 21.7 trillion cubic feet (tcf) of which 12.5 tcf are recoverable. Production is projected at 1.1 billion cubic feet per day in the first phase of the field’s development.
Iran is the world’s fifth largest oil exporter and sits on the world’s second largest natural gas reserves after Russia.
The Islamic Republic says it needs around $25 billion a year in oil and gas industry investment to meet its target development goal in oil and gas sectors.
Farzad-B gas oil field is located in Farsi Block in the Persian Gulf waters.
India’s state-run Oil and Natural Gas Corporation Limited (ONGC) heads a consortium which has exclusive exploration rights for the offshore Farsi block of which the Farzad-B gas field is part.
ONGC and Indian Oil Corp each own a 40 percent interest in the Farsi block, and Oil India Ltd holds the remainder.

Iran Ranks 3rd Among Newly-Emerged Economies

Latest reports indicated that Iran has ranked third among world’s newly-emerged economic powers, an official with the Ministry of Mines and Industries said on Sunday.
According to a report recently published by the World Fact Book, Iran stood at the third place in 2009 after China and India among world’s newly-emerged economic powers, Industries Deputy Minister of Mines and for Planning, Development and Technology Affairs Mohsen Hatam told reporters.
Hatam further quoted the report as saying that Iran has also ranked 29th for the growth rate of its industrial products in the said period, IRNA reported.
The official added that ranks of the under-developed countries should not be taken seriously in the report as they had a little share in industrial activities.
“What is important is Iran’s position among industrial states such as members of the G-20,” Hatam stressed.
He said that in 2006, Iran stood at the 13th place among the G-20 countries while in 2009 it managed to lift its position and reached the third place.
Hatam referred to Iran’s new stance as a breakthrough for the Iranian nation and a sign of an increasing growth in the country’s industrial field.

Fisheries Cooperation With Russia

The Islamic Republic of Iran and Russia signed an agreement to expand cooperation in protection of fish species in the Caspian Sea.
The agreement was signed at the 6th meeting of Iran-Russia joint fisheries commission held this week in Tehran, Moj News Agency reported.
The two sides will cooperate in researches on Caspian Sea contaminators, fight against illegal fishing of sturgeons, facilitating aquatics imports and exports to and from the two countries, holding annual technical-scientific bilateral meetings on aquaculture and reviving aquatics resources in the Caspian Sea, and transfering know-how on sturgeon cultivation.
Russia will attend a meeting on Caspian Sea living resources on November 2-3, in Tehran. The meeting is aimed at expansion of regional cooperation in fighting against Red Tide in the Caspian Sea.
Russian side also should attend the commission’s meeting on distribution of sturgeon exports quota to be held in Tehran on December 18-19, 2010.
Last week, Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister Amir Borqei said at a press conference in Astana that Iran could exchange its remarkable experiences in preserving sturgeon species with the Caspian Sea littoral states,
Iran has great experience in preserving sturgeon species and currently the work is being conducted to restore their population in the Caspian Sea, Borqei said.
“We have adopted a law to preserve sturgeon species. According to it, a six-month ban is imposed on fishing sturgeon”, Trend News Agency quoted him as saying.
It should be noted that the sturgeon spawning occurs in the south of Caspian Sea, where people breed this fish.
Iran is making a great contribution to preserve ecology of the Caspian Sea, as a lot of rivers with clear mountain water run in it, he said.
There are no large industrial enterprises in the Caspian provinces of Iran, which would contaminate this part of the sea.
This is important given that sturgeon comes from the north to the south of the Caspian Sea.
According to the head of Iran’s Fisheries Organization, Aminollah Taqavi Motlaq, Iran’s sturgeon export quota in 2010 accounts for 45.01 percent of the five Caspian Sea littoral states’ total quota and the country will export 38.744 tons of the sea food in the current year.
Iran has decided to decrease its quota by 8 percent, he added. Export quota is a restriction imposed by a government on the amount or number of goods or services that may be exported within a given period, usually with the intent of keeping prices of those goods or services low for domestic users.

Bahonar Port to Begin Exporting Minerals

The Southern Iranian port of Shahid Bahonar has begun the export of mineral products for the first time in its history, the port’s manager said.
“The first consignment will be 10,000 tons of clinker in bulk format to Iraq,” Majid Amini said.
He pointed out that more than 100,000 tons of clinker will be exported by the end of the current Iranian calendar year ending March 20, 2011, Presstv reported.
“More than 900,000 tons of goods, including 690,000 tons of non-oil goods as well as oil products have been discharged in Shahid Bahonar port from March 20-October 20, 2010,” Amini added.
He noted that a total of 35,000 tons of non-oil goods were transited from Shahid Bahonar port during the same period last year showing a 78-percent increase in the transit of goods.

Saffron Festival

The 5th national saffron festival will be held in Qaenat, South Khorasan province on November 11-12.