DHAHRAN: State oil giant Saudi Aramco plans to launch its overhauled Muajjiz oil terminal on the Red Sea next year, lifting its total loading and export capacity to as much as 15 million barrels per day, Saudi officials said.
Located on the Red Sea, Muajjiz had been used as an export terminal for Iraqi crude through the Iraqi Pipeline in Saudi Arabia (IPSA), but it has not carried Iraqi crude since Saddam Hussein invaded Kuwait in 1990.
The pipeline was confiscated by Saudi Arabia in 2001 as compensation for debts owed by Baghdad.
Saudi Arabia had used the IPSA pipeline to transport gas to power plants in the west of the country for years before test opening it in 2012, giving Riyadh scope to export more of its crude should Iran try to block the Strait of Hormuz.
Saudi’s arch-rival has in the past threatened to block the Hormuz shipping channel, through which 40 per cent of the world’s seaborne oil exports pass, in retaliation for sanctions placed on its crude exports by Western powers in 2012.
— Reuters
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