TEHRAN – The first phase of Iran’s strategic Goreh-Jask pipeline project, which will provide the country with an alternative route for crude oil exports that are currently transferred through the Strait of Hormuz, has reached 76.5 percent of physical progress and is nearing completion based on the schedule.

According to Ali Jafarzadeh, deputy manager of the project, with the completion of the first phase of the project, 300,000 barrels per day (bpd) of oil will be transported from Goreh to Jask Island.

He mentioned the construction of pipelines, two pumping stations, as well as two pigging and power supply stations among the goals of the first phase of the project and said: by the end of the current Iranian calendar year (March 20, 2021), two million barrels of storage capacity will also go operational at Jask Island.

Noting that the progress in the construction of the project pipelines has reached more than 62 percent, Jafarzadeh continued: “So far, about 700 kilometers (km) of pipes have been delivered to the site and more than 300 km of piping has been laid; according to the plan, the entire pipeline length which is about a thousand kilometers will be installed, tested, and operational by the end of this year.”

Goreh-Jask project, which is aimed at expanding the oil transport capacity in the south of the country to one million barrels a day, was inaugurated in late June by President Hassan Rouhani.

Addressing the inaugural ceremony of the project, President Rouhani said this project was currently the country’s most strategic project.

“We hope that exports from Jask will begin as the government's most strategic project by the end of this [calendar] year (March 20, 2021),” the president noted.

So far, a total of $300 million has been invested in the project while another $800 million to $850 million is needed for its full operation.

According to the head of Iran’s Petroleum Engineering and Development Company (PEDEC), considering the current rate of progress in the Goreh-Jask oil pipeline project, National Iranian Oil Company (NIOC) will be able to export its first oil cargo from Jask terminal by the end of the current Iranian calendar year.

EF/MA