According to Vahid Maleki, the planned roll-out at the end of the current Iranian calendar year for the Jask oil terminal would include a metering system, two 36-inch pipelines, marine manifold and a single point mooring (SPM) facility, Press TV reported.

Iran began work on Jask oil terminal and a 1000-kilometer pipeline system connecting it to the Goureh region in southwestern province of Bushehr in late June.

The $2-billion project will enable Iran to deliver oil for exports outside the Strait of Hormuz, a narrow waterway through which nearly a third of the global seaborne oil trade is accommodated.

More than 4,000 people have been recruited for the construction of massive project which is fully financed by the Iranian government.

Maleki said construction and engineering teams were almost through on 35 percent of the work on the pipeline and the oil export terminal in Jask, adding that the project would go ahead as planned in the upcoming months until it fully comes on line by March.

“Currently, some 150 units of light and heavy machinery are busy working on the executive side and some 900,000 cubic meters of earthworks has been carried out as part of plans for the early rollout of the project,” the contractor was quoted as saying in a report by the Pars Oil & Gas Company, which is in charge of the project.

According to Touraj Dehqani, the development of the project is going on uninterrupted and the project has reached over 50 percent of physical progress, IRNA reported.

“With the main pumping stations of the project becoming operational, we will witness the beginning of the oil transfer from Goreh to Jask by the end of the year,” Dehqani said.

“Of course, like other parts of the project, Jask export terminal itself has developed and progressed,” he added.

The official added if the required storages at the Jask terminal are not addressed by the end of the year, alternative options such as the use of single-point-mooring (SPM) storing the oil will be on the agenda.

The PEDEC’s goal is to export the first oil cargo from Jask oil terminal in the last month of the current Iranian calendar year (starting on February 19, 2021).

Goreh-Jusk oil pipeline project was inaugurated in late June by President Hassan Rouhani.

The pipeline will transfer one million barrels of heavy and light crude oil per day to Jask oil terminal in the southern province of Hormuzgan to be exported.

Addressing the inaugural ceremony of the project, Oil Minister Bijan Namdar Zanganeh said it was one of the most strategic projects in the Rouhani administration.

Zanganeh said a total of $300 million has so far been invested in the project while another $800-$850 million is needed for its full operation.

“We hope that exports from Jask will begin as the government’s most strategic project by the end of this [Iranian] year,” the minister noted.

According to Omani media, the maritime transport line has been launched by Marafai Company in Oman and in line with the company’s initiative to create a direct tradeline with Iran, IRNA reported on Wednesday.

Marafi announced that the shipping line started its activities on May 5.

Another shipping line had earlier been launched between Bandar Abbas and Port Suwaiq and five cargo vessels transport goods between Iran and Oman every week.

The head of Iran’s Trade Promotion Organization (TPO) Hamid Zadboum said in April that to develop and expand the level of trade relations between Iran and Oman, the third shipping line between Jask port and certain Omani ports will be launched soon, menafn.com reported on Saturday.

Talking about the rise in the trade volume between both countries, he said that last month both countries opened a container shipping line to transit cargo between the southern Iranian port city of Bandar Abbas and Port Sultan Qaboos in Oman.

He added, “The line is used to transport container cargo, mainly fruits and vegetables, between the two countries.”

On April 3, the TPO head gave assurance that Iran’s economy will resolve the coronavirus crisis as, over the past years, it has managed to overcome cruel sanctions on the country.

Concurrent with the spread of the coronavirus in the country, monitoring of the common borders started on a daily basis through the country’s embassies and [commercial] attachés in neighboring states, and Iranian traders were provided with the required information through an online app as well as Iran Chamber of Commerce, Industries, Mines and Agriculture (ICCIMA).

In addition to the threats the coronavirus has posed to Iran’s economy and foreign trade, it has also provided the country with a brilliant opportunity to expand exports in different sectors, including that of services, Zadboum said.

He noted, “No doubt our plans have been impacted by the coronavirus contagion and [US] sanctions. However, we must prevent serious harm to the country’s production and exports, and make use of the current situation in regional and neighboring states to boost our overseas sales.”

Navy chief Rear Admiral Hossein Khanzadi announced the mass production of the Jask cruise missile while visiting a navy exhibition showcasing a number of the force’s recent achievements on Saturday, Press TV reported.

Khanzadi said all of the force’s submarines will be equipped with the weapon and that the missile’s current range will be improved “substantially” in the future.

The commander added that the weapon, developed as part of the Jask-2 project, will allow the navy to hit targets across long ranges.

The missile “will surely be a serious surprise for the enemy,” he said.

Another project dubbed Jask-3 is also under development, Khanzadi said. The project will allow a wider variety of missile capabilities to be used in submarines, he added.

Also on Saturday, five other military projects and achievements, comprising the sea-launched Pelikan drone, the Sadaf-2 naval mine, the Soren positioning system, the Balaban guided bomb, and the Loqman training vessel, were also unveiled.

Among the unveiled projects, the Soren positioning system will allow Iranian submarines to obtain tracking information without using Global Positioning System (GPS) technology while operating discreetly underwater.

The Pelikan drone also incorporates four vertical-flight motors in order to allow the drone to take off and vertically on military vessels in order to perform maritime patrol operations from ships.