TEHRAN: The head of Iran’s oil terminal company said that the country has seen a significant spike in international tanker traffic since Western sanctions were eased last year.
Iran Oil Terminals Company (IOTC) Chief Seyyed Pirouz Mousavi said that Iran has seen its volume of oil and gas condensate tanker traffic grow by 50 percent since sanctions were lifted.
Mousavi said that tankers leased out by several international companies, including France’s Total and Italy’s Eni, are currently arriving and being loaded at Iran’s southern terminals.
Mousavi added that the country has a current gas condensate loading and export capacity of about two million barrels.
The Obama administration secured a roll back of sanctions on Iran in late 2015 that called for Iran to curb its nuclear program in exchange for Western sanctions on oil exports being lifted.
Since the sanctions were officially lifted last January several energy companies have signed deals with Iran.
In November, France’s Total became the first major international oil firm to sign a development deal with Iran since Western sanctions were lifted.
Total signed a heads of agreement with the National Iranian Oil Company (NIOC) that covers the development of phase 11 of the South Pars gas field.
Last January, Italian services firm Saipem signed a memorandum of understanding with the Parsian Oil & Gas Development Company.
Saipem said the MoU”envisages discussions aimed at Saipem’s potential cooperation in revamping and upgrading the Pars Shiraz and Tabriz refineries.”
Late last year, Schlumberger signed a preliminary deal with the NIOC to collect data for an Iranian oil field.
The Houston-based company told the Wall Street Journal that the memorandum of covers the “non-disclosure of data required for a technical evaluation of a field development prospect.”
Schlumberger added that the agreement does not call for the execution oil field operation services and the company said it will comply with all laws and regulations.
Iranian officials have said that they hope to attract over $150 billion in energy projects by 2020 now that sanctions have been lifted
