Iran launches floating condensate export terminal

Baku, Azerbaijan, March 30 By Umid Niayesh - Trend: Iran has launched a second floating terminal to export condensates in the southern port of Asaluyeh, located in the Persian Gulf, managing director of the Iranian Oil Terminals Company, Pirouz Mousavi said, the country's Mehr news agency reported on March 27. Mousavi went on to say that the terminal has the capacity to export 600,000 barrels of condensate per day. Gas condensates are a kind of light and expensive crude oil extracted from gas fields. Mousavi underlined that the floating terminal will be able to meet growing demand for the country's condensates. The floating terminal was under overhaul for the past two years and by putting it back into operation, currently two floating terminal are being used to transfer condensates on to tankers offshore at Asaluyeh. Each terminal is capable of transferring 600,000 barrels of condensate per day to oil tankers with capacity of maximum 320,000 tons. Earlier in March Iranian media outlets reported that the country's condensate export capacity will increase from some 450,000 barrels per day to 1.2 million bpd in the next two months after the new floating terminal's inauguration. The Iranian Customs Administration's latest report released on Feb. 23 shows that the country's monthly gas condensates exports in the past four months stood at an average figure of $1.388 billion, up 247 percent compared to the average figure of the first seven months of the solar year (ended March 21). Iran's average gas condensates exports in the first seven months of the fiscal year were $561 million per month. Iran's total gas condensate exports in the first 11 months of the year ending March 21 were around $9.479 billion. The figure is $1.021 billion more than the same period of the previous year. Iran's gas condensate exports in the Iranian calendar year of 1391(ended on March 21, 2013) faced a 12.56 percent decrease compared to the preceding year, stand at $8.881 billion. Edited by C.N. Follow us on Twitter @TRENDNewsAgency