Iran Boosts Oil Storage With Facility to Hold 500,000 Barrels

Iran has added storage for as much as 500,000 barrels of oil, the third such facility it established in southern Bushehr province in the past year, the Oil Ministry news website, Shana, reported.

The new facility will increase Iran’s storage capacity in Bushehr’s Bahregan region to 4 million barrels, according to the report, which cited Mohammad-Bagher Soleimani, Iranian Offshore Oil Co.’s production director.

Iranian Offshore Oil plans to raise storage capacity in Bahregan to 8.1 million barrels in 2013, said the state company’s managing director, Mahmoud Zirakchianzadeh, according to the report yesterday.

International sanctions against Iran over its nuclear program have hampered crude exports from one of the main producers in the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries. Imports of Iranian oil fell at least 36 percent in January to less than 1 million barrels a day, and the nation’s output slumped to the lowest level in more than three decades, the International Energy Agency said Feb. 13.

To contact the reporter on this story: Ladane Nasseri in Dubai at lnasseri@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Andrew J. Barden at barden@bloomberg.net