SHANA � The National Iranian Oil Company (NIOC) CEO said one of the main goals to develop Makran Coastal Strip was diversifying the country�s oil export spots.

Addressing ceremony to sign a contract between Petroleum Engineering and Development Company (PEDEC) and the domestic company for construction of an oil storage facility at Jask Port in Makran coastal strip, Ali Kardor said on Sunday evening that developing Makran region would facilitate the country�s oil exports given its proximity to east Asian markets.

He also said that Iran�s oil production capacity could easily cross 6 million barrels per day.

The Build�operate�transfer (BOT) contract was signed on Sunday by PEDEC CEO Touraj Dehghani and Asghar Gorzin, CEO of Petro-Omid Asia, and Ahmad Ebrahimi, the managing director of Omid Investment Management Group, as part of the Iranian Petroleum Ministry�s strategic plant to develop Jask Port and deliver crude oil from Goreh, Bushehr, to Jask, southern Iran.

The project will be implemented over a period of three years with 200 million Euros in initial investment. The tanks will be operated for a period of 15 years.

The National Iranian Oil Company (NIOC) has possessed about 5000 acres of coastal land located 65 kilometers west of Jask city, near Mubarak Mount, for construction of special oil, gas, refining and petrochemical projects. Thanks to a permit for construction of the 42-inch Gorejh-Jask crude oil pipeline, part of the land in western Jask has been allocated for the construction of an oil terminal for export of crude oil and construction of crude oil storage tanks at Jask port, and construction of these tanks are now on the agenda of NIOC.

The crude oil storage tanks are being built with 10 million barrels of light and heavy crude oil storage capacity, and include 20 floating roof metal tanks, each with a capacity of 500 thousand barrels. These tanks will store the crude oil pumped from the 42-inch Goreh-Jask oil pipeline, and pumps it to seabed pipelines and SBMs.