A senior Iranian official says the number of foreign oil supertankers docking at Iran’s southern Kharg oil terminal has seen a major increase after the implementation of last year’s nuclear agreement between Iran and the P5+1 group of countries.
On January 16, Iran and the five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council – the United States, France, Britain, China and Russia – plus Germany started implementing the nuclear agreement, known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), which they reached on July 14, 2015.
Under the JCPOA, all nuclear-related sanctions imposed on Iran by the European Union, the Security Council, and the US would be lifted. Iran has, in return, put some limitations on its nuclear activities.
“For the first time after [the implementation of] the JCPOA, 240 oil supertankers carrying various countries' flags loaded at Kharg island,” General Manager of Bushehr Province Department of Ports and Maritime Organization Mohammad Mehdi Benchari said on Sunday.
He added that supertankers from France, Spain, Greece, Poland, the Netherlands, Italy and South Korea docked at the Kharg island for the first time after the JCPOA.
He added that over 35.8 million tons of different products were loaded and unloaded at Kharg during the first four months of the current Iranian calendar year (started on March 20), showing a 60-percent increase in comparison with the similar period last year.
The official noted that Kharg is one of the most important ports operating in the field of exports, saying that most of Iran's crude oil is exported via this strategic port.
Benchari said Kharg island's docks have great capacity, adding, “In the first four months [of the current Iranian calendar year], 925 ships with capacities of over or under 1,000 tons docked at the port.”
Located in 57 kilometers northwest of Bushehr in the Persian Gulf, Kharg island is Iran’s biggest oil export terminal.