Iran's giant oil-tanker company NITC is set to boost its fleet with new large tankers by the end of next year, an Iranian official said Tuesday, as demand for its ships gets a boost despite sanctions against Tehran.
Iran
's
giant oil-tanker company NITC is set to boost its fleet with new large tankers
by the end of next year, an Iranian official said Tuesday, as demand for its
ships gets a boost despite sanctions against
Tehran
.
Privately-owned NITC, one of the world's largest tanker operators that isn't
itself sanctioned, has ordered 12 new Very Large Crude Carriers to be delivered
by end-2013 with the first, China-made vessel due in May, the Iranian official
said.
The overall cost of the program will be $1.2 billion--with NITC's tankers
carrying a premium due to safety and environment requirements--and will
increase its capacity to 13.5 million metric tons, from about 10 million tons
currently, the official said.
"The order was placed a year ago" to take advantage of "the
lowest price" on the market and was unrelated to sanctions, the official
said.
But there is now "more demand for NITC tankers," the official said. NITC's
business in the European Union is declining ahead of a planned ban on Iranian
oil there, but the official said "demand is increasing in
Asia
."
In particular,
Tehran
's
giant state-oil company National Iranian Oil Co., or NIOC, is increasingly
relying on Iranian tankers.
"Nowadays NIOC is more related to NITC," the official said.
Under NITC's expansion plans Iranian tankers would cover about 40% of the
country's crude exports--normally standing at 2.2 million barrels a day--
compared with 30% today, the official said.
In addition, half of the oil transported by NITC is produced by other nations,
including in the
Persian Gulf
, he said, speaking in general
terms.
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