June 29, 2020 [AA Energy] – A new 1000-kilometer-long oil pipeline in the south of Iran, the Gorey-Jask pipeline, will provide the country with an alternative route for crude oil exports which are currently transferring through the Strait of Hormuz, the Iranian president said on Tuesday.

Speaking at an event about boosting and promoting domestic production, Hassan Rouhani said the new oil pipeline from the Goreh oilfield to the Port of Jask on Iran’s coast along the Gulf of Oman would reroute the country’s oil exports away from the Hormuz Strait.

Rouhani hailed the project, which has been allocated a $1.8 billion budget, a first in the state’s history.

According to Shana news agency, Iran’s National Oil Company announced that part of the pipeline would come onstream by the end of the current Iranian calendar year to March 19, 2021.

Data from the International Energy Agency showed that Iran’s proven oil reserves were almost 157 billion barrels in 2018 to rank fourth in the world and second globally for natural gas.

Iran’s exports of petroleum products averaged 507,000 barrels per day (bpd) in 2017, falling from 587,000 bpd in 2016.

Iran, which exported 1.8 million barrels of crude oil daily in 2018, was able to export only 573,261 barrels in 2019 due to the US’s withdrawal from the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, also known as Iran Nuclear Agreement.

In May 2018, US President Donald Trump unilaterally withdrew from a landmark 2015 nuclear deal that world powers struck with Tehran to curb its nuclear program in exchange for billions of dollars in relief from economic sanctions.

Trump has since embarked on a campaign to scuttle the agreement, including the re-imposition of sanctions on Iranian crude oil that were lifted as part of the agreement.

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