OPEC member Iraq is planning to buy giant oil tankers to boost its shipping fleet as it is pushing ahead with post-war plans to expand its hydrocarbon sector, an official was quoted on Wednesday as saying.
Ali Qais, Director General of the state-owned Iraqi Oil Tankers Company, said Iraq has just launched a new tanker into service and that bigger vessels would join the fleet.
Chinese-built “Sumer” ship arrived in port in Iraq in August and was put into service in late September, he said, adding that has a capacity of 31,000 tonnes.
“We have plans to purchase giant tankers to boost our fleet and ship more oil to our clients abroad…some of these tankers will have a capacity of 2 million barrels,” Qais told Baghdad Alyoum news network.
He said the Company has received instructions from Oil Minister Hayan Abdel Ghani to work for “rebuilding the tanker fleet to transport more oil.”
Iraq, which sits atop 145 billion barrels of crude deposits, exports more than 3.5 million barrels per day of oil and is OPEC’s second largest producer after Saudi Arabia.