Iran's National Tanker Company (NITC) recently purchased ten new oil supertankers at a total cost of $750 million from the Chinese state-owned Dalian Shipbuilding Corporation and South Korea’s Hyundai shipyards. Able to carry 300,000 tons of crude each, the new VLCCs (very large crude carriers) are to double Iran’s fleet capacity by 2004.
Iran has already paid seven percent of the deal’s cost, while the remaining portion will be taken as a 10-year loan from Chinese and South Korean banks, NITC Managing Director Mohammad Suri told IRNA.
NITC, a wholly owned subsidiary of the Iranian National Oil Company (NIOC), is responsible for exporting some 950,000 barrels per day (bpd) of Iran's crude exports on a delivered or Charge, Insurance and Freight (cif) basis. It also time charters its own vessels in the spot market.
Iran is the world's third largest oil exporter behind Saudi Arabia and Norway, with oil exports making up 80 percent of the country’s foreign currency revenues. — (menareport.com)
© 2002 Mena Report (www.menareport.com)
