TEHRAN – The managing 
director of the Iranian Oil Terminals Company said that despite extensive attacks on the Kharg oil terminal during the third imposed war, average oil exports from the terminal rose about 10% compared with before the war, and exports continued without interruption.
Abbas Asadrouz, speaking on Sunday on the sidelines of a visit to an exhibition of oil industry documents and images from the Sacred Defense era, said the company links the oil industry’s strategic infrastructure through receiving, storage, measurement and export. Storage tanks, export jetties and pipelines form a key part of this chain. Because of their role in oil exports, the company’s facilities are classed as critical infrastructure and, as the last operational link between the oil industry and its domestic and foreign customers, must always be in peak readiness.
Over the past year or two, 500 million euros in funding has been allocated to projects covering pipelines, storage tanks, export jetties and other operational, support and welfare infrastructure. Some projects have completed tendering, with contractors selected and work under way, while others are still in the tender stage and contractors will be chosen soon. Major overhauls are currently under way on seven to eight tanks with capacities of 1.5 million barrels, and overhauls of Kharg’s eastern and western jetties are also planned. Kharg also has tanks ranging from 140,000 to one million barrels, whose renovation and overhaul are included in the planned projects.
Asadrouz said Kharg holds a special geopolitical and geoeconomic position. As the country’s largest oil terminal, it receives, stores and exports about 93% of Iran’s crude oil. He said the island may not have received the attention it deserves, but it tells the story of the Iranian nation’s resistance and endurance, from the eight-year Sacred Defense to recent wars. Recalling his own arrival on the island in 1375 (1996-97), he said traces of wartime bombing were still visible, and oil workers had kept exports going with bare hands, courage and a spirit of sacrifice.
During the eight-year Sacred Defense, which lasted 2,888 days, Kharg was attacked more than 2,800 times. Sirens sounded repeatedly, but oil workers stayed at their posts and did not let exports stop for even a day. That spirit continued afterward and was seen again in recent wars.
In the latest war, despite 548 strikes, mostly by bunker-buster missiles, Kharg’s staff managed to export 70 million barrels of the country’s oil.
Asadrouz described the company’s first strategy as making oil exports non-suspendable, as a strategic component of supporting the national economy. Managers’ presence on site shortened the gap between decision and execution, at times to zero, enabling fast responses to shifting and complex threats. He called human capital the most important factor in keeping the terminals running. Staff faced two kinds of pressure: doubled operational workload and the stress of threats and uncertainty, yet they stayed and kept operations going.
Asadrouz said three variables were managed simultaneously during the war: crude inflow, strategic tank inventory and outflow. Following the attack on the Tehran oil depot, about 300,000 barrels were added to Kharg’s inflow, so exports had to rise to avoid disrupting the production and storage chain. Average exports from Kharg during the 40-day war were about 10% higher than before the war, a result he credited to the sustained efforts of Kharg’s staff.
Asadrouz said the eight years of the Sacred Defense instilled courage and resilience in successive generations of oil workers, and this spirit showed itself again in recent wars. He said terminal staff stayed at work in the hardest conditions and prevented any stoppage of oil exports, which he described as more than an organizational task: a national mission to support the country’s economy.