News Content

Iran earns $1.5b through bunkering in calendar year

Iran earned $1.5 billion through bunkering in previous Iranian calendar year 1392, which ended on March 20, 2014, National Iranian Oil Products Distribution Company (NIOPDC) Managing Director Mostafa Kashkouli said.

“Last year, 2.855 million tons of furnace oil and gas oil were sold to tankers,” the Shana News Agency quoted Kashkouli as saying on Wednesday.

Bunkering is the process of supplying fuels to ships for their own use.

Furnace oil and gas oil bunkering rose by 31 percent and 7 percent, respectively, compared to the calendar year ended in March 2013.

He noted that the volume of bunkering is projected to hit 4 million tons in the current Iranian calendar year.

Iran raised oil production by 65,000 barrels per day (bpd) in March from February, data compiled by Bloomberg showed.

Iran’s total oil output hit 2.9 million barrels per day in March.

On April 6, Iranian Oil Minister Bijan Namdar Zanganeh said Iran forecasts an increase in its crude oil and natural gas production in the current Iranian calendar year.

“Iran’s crude oil output is forecast to increase by about 200,000 barrels per day to 4 million barrels per day, and its daily natural gas output is forecast to increase by about 100 million cubic meters per day to 400 million cubic meters per day,” the minister explained.

The country is currently exporting about 1.2 million barrels per day of oil and has earmarked 1.5 million barrels of daily sales in the national budget for the year 1393, he added.

By holding 157 billion barrels of recoverable crude oil reserves, Iran possesses the world’s fourth largest reserves of crude oil.

An interim accord easing restrictions on insurance for Iran’s oil shipments and freeing up cash held outside the country in return for a suspension of nuclear work went into effect in January. Under the agreement, six buyers permitted under U.S. sanctions to take Iranian crude don’t have to cut imports to avoid penalties.
Source: Tehran Times