"Petro Omid Asia Company and Omid Investment Management Group will start the construction phase in July," Touraj Dehghani was quoted as saying by Shana, the Oil Ministry news portal.
PEDEC, a subsidiary of the National Iranian Oil Company, Petro Omid Asia Company and Omid Investment Management Group signed a build-operate-transfer (BOT) contract basis in October to build the facilities.
The agreement is part of a comprehensive plan to transform Jask into a major oil export terminal, according to Financial Tribune.
The terminal is part of a development plan to diversify Iranian oil export outlets and estimated to cost $2 billion. It should be ready by 2022.
Iranian oil is largely exported from Kharg Oil Terminal off the Persian Gulf and Jask will help ease tanker traffic to and from Kharg.
The 20 storage tanks will be built to hold 10 million barrels and can increase up to 30 million. Moreover, the plan calls for laying 1,000 kilometers of a 42-inch pipeline from the city of Goureh (Bushehr Province) to Jask.
"Close to 200 million euros will be spent during the first phase, a part of which (designing phase) is complete," the official said, noting that the project entails installing five pumping stations in Bushehr, Fars and Hormozgan provinces.
The terminal will be equipped with three single buoy moorings, enabling a wide range of tankers to load and unload.
A single buoy mooring is a loading buoy anchored offshore that serves as a mooring point for tankers loading or offloading gas or liquid products.
Dehghani said “Jask is a strategic port for a variety of reasons, namely its proximity to the Makran Coast along the Oman Sea.
Furthermore, moving the main oil export terminal from Kharg to Jask will have another advantage as Iranian oil tankers will not have to pass through the normally crowded Strait of Hormuz.
According to the International Energy Agency, the Strait of Hormuz is the world’s most important chokepoint with oil flow of 18.5 million bpd in 2016.