The
Islamic Republic of Iran Shipping Lines (IRISL) was believed to have
signed a co-operation agreement with Singapore’s Pacific International
Lines (PIL).
According to a report in the Iran Business News, this agreement could
lead to the development of a tanker operation to ship products and
petrochemicals from East Asia to as far as West Africa, although PIL is
predominantly a containership operator.
IRISL head Mohammad Saeidi was quoted by Iranian media as saying that
the company plans to expand its current fleet of tankers, containerships
and drybulk carriers, Iran Business News reported.
Meanwhile, Frontline has reportedly said that securing insurance for oil cargoes from Iran could take another two to three months, potentially limiting Iran's ability to quickly ramp up oil exports.
"We have not lifted anything yet, there are still terms of insurance
and payments. There are still some outstanding (issues). (But) we expect
that to be in place within two to three months," said Robert Hvide
Macleod, Frontline CEO said. "That could change, but two to three months
(is) our estimate," he told a conference call with investors on Monday,
reported Reuters.
The US still prohibits US individuals or companies from trading with
Iran and insurers are trying to clarify the details of the sanctions.
"In terms of volumes, (Iran's) pre-sanctions levels were 2.8 mill
barrels of oil per day. Their domestic refineries consumed about 1.8
mill," MacLeod said. "There is a million left to export, which they did
on their own ships. Now the post-sanctions volumes available into 2016
looks to be between 1.5 mill to 2 mill barrels."
MacLeod said once the insurance issues are resolved, Iran would rely
more on international shipping. Iranian tankers have been storing oil
and will continue to do so, due to a lack of land storage facilities, he
said.
"We expect the chartering requirement from Iran to increase and (for)
them to fix international tonnage," he said, reported Reuters.
No comments:
Post a Comment