NIOTC Signs Contract to Build Three Oil Tankers

The Head of NIOTC Planning Department, Abdolsamad Ta’qol, said that the contract contains six oil tankers to boost Iran’s oil transferring capacity in the Caspian Sea.

“Three of them would be built by the Iranian company SADRA and the other three by a Russian company,” Ta’qol said.

Elsewhere, the official had said that the contract was worth $240 million, of which $140 million to be supplied by Exchange Reserve Fund.

The contract with Iranian SADRA Co. is worth $120 million.

The contract financed jointly by National Iranian Oil Company (NIOC) and the Russian part, would be completed in three years, he said.

The three tankers to be built by the Iranian side would be delivered by the end of the next Iranian calendar year of 1383 (ending March 20, 2005), he said.

The six tankers will be used with respect to the daily oil swap contract between Iran, Turkmenistan, Kazakhstan, and Russia to transfer 370,000 barrels of these countries’ crude oil to the Iranian northern port of Neka, Ta’qol said.

The crude oil is to be consumed by two refineries in northern city of Tabriz and Tehran, the official added.

Ta’qol stated that it is the first time tankers of such size are built, since the largest ones presently in use in the Caspian Sea have a capacity of seven thousand tons.

Presently, NIOTC has administered 32 oil tankers all in highest level of international standards, he said.

No problem has yet been reported from any port in allover the world regarding our oil tankers’ standard level deficiency, the official concluded.

AF/IS
END
MNA