TEHRAN – The implementation of Iran’s strategic Goreh-Jask oil pipeline by domestic contractors has saved the country over €500 million, Managing Director of Petroleum Engineering and Development Company (PEDEC) said.

The first phase of the mentioned 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 nearly 80 percent of physical progress and is nearing completion based on the schedule.

According to Touraj Dehqani, the implementation of the project so far has created direct jobs for 8,000 people, while providing indirect job opportunities for over 15,000 people as well.

Dehqani stated that the first phase of this project with a capacity to transfer over 300,000 barrels of crude oil per day will be ready for operation by the end of the current Iranian calendar year (March 20, 2021).

So far, more than 780 kilometers (km) of pipes have been delivered to the site and more than 400 km of piping has been carried out, the official said.

According to the plan, the entire pipeline, which is about 1,000 kilometers, will be installed, tested, and operational by the yearend, he added.

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.

EF/MA