Iran to raise jet fuel exports

Iran said on Friday it planned to increase its jet fuel exports to neighbouring countries by launching a new pipeline this month, the state-run Press TV quoted an oil official as saying.

"The 12.5 kilometer-long pipeline, aimed at increasing the exports of jet fuel, will come on stream in Bandar Abbas, the capital of southern Hormozgan province, in February," the English-language Press TV quoted Deputy Oil Minister Alireza Zeighami as saying on Friday.

Zeighami did not make clear to which countries Iran planned to export the fuel, but Iranian officials have previously said the Islamic state will start exporting jet fuel to Afghanistan in 2012.

Iran, the world's fifth-largest oil producer, has been slapped by international sanctions over its disputed nuclear activities, which the West suspects are aimed at making atomic weapons, a charge Tehran denies.

Iranian officials have repeatedly shrugged off the impact of sanctions, saying the Islamic state had become more self-reliant.

Energy officials said in September the Islamic state had started exporting jet fuel, and Zeighami said on Friday a new jet fuel production unit had been launched at Kermanshah refinery in western Iran, without giving more details.

Once the pipeline becomes operational, Iran's loading capacity of oil products in the Persian Gulf will increase, he said.

In January Washington and the EU imposed the toughest sanctions yet in a drive to force Tehran to provide more information on its nuclear programme. The measures take direct aim at the ability of OPEC's second-biggest oil exporter to sell its crude.

EU leaders agreed to implement their own embargo on Iranian oil by July and to freeze the assets of Iran's central bank, joining the United States in a new round of measures aimed at deflecting Tehran's nuclear development programme.

Iran's standoff with the West over its nuclear programme has complicated Tehran's oil exports and prompted it often to sell crude at steep discounts, which is appealing for struggling European refiners.

The Islamic Republic has scoffed at efforts to choke its oil exports as Asia lines up to buy what Europe scorns and has also renewed threats to stop Arab oil from leaving the Gulf by closing the Strait of Hormuz. (Writing By Mitra Amiri, editing by Jane Baird)

Source: REUTERS