Iranian Ports Post Significant Jump in Handling Oil-Products

Load and unload operations for petrochemical and other oil-product cargoes have surged by almost a third in one month at the Iranian ports, indicating that the country has managed to find a way around the US unilateral sanctions which were supposed to paralyze Tehran’s economy.

Iran’s ministry of transportation issued a report on Monday saying that load/unload for ships carrying “oil products” had increased by 28.4 percent in the last local calendar month between October 23 and November 22, 2019, compared to the similar period in last year.

The ministry said the surge in activity came despite a clear fall in the number of load and unloads for other cargoes in the same monthly period.

“In the category of load and unload of oil products, in comparison with the similar period last year, the issue is totally different as a figure of 3,705 tons has been recorded for load and unload of such products,” said the report.

The report said figures from the previous month had shown an increase of 5.4 percent for similar port operations compared to October-November 2018.

The increase in trade of Iran’s petrochemical products comes despite repeated attempts by the United States to choke off the country’s flow of revenues related to oil.

The United States has imposed rounds of tough sanctions on Iran’s oil industry since November last year and after Washington decided to pull out of an international agreement on Iran’s nuclear program.

Iran has admitted that the sanctions have affected its direct sale of crude but authorities insist the bans have caused a boom in the refining activity across the country.

In September, Oil Minister Bijan Zangeneh blasted the US for re-imposing sanctions on Iran, but meantime said that the country’s petrochemical output is increasing despite the US sanctions.

“Iran’s petrochemical production capacity would cross 100 mt/y by 2021,” Zangeneh said, addressing the opening ceremony of the 13th Iran Plast International Exhibition.

He noted that the petrochemical production capacity of the country would reach 130 mt/y by 2025 valued at $37 billion.

“Iran’s ethane production capacity would reach 16 million tons per year by 2021 from 4.2 mt/y back in 2013. The items’ current production capacity is 7.3 mt/y,” Zangeneh added.

The Iranian oil minister noted that 27 projects would come on stream in the country by 2021.