QMSENG Co. Managing Director:
Bunker High Quality and Cheap Fuel with No Delay
Iran is the fifth producer of oil in the world and is considered to return to oil market strongly in post sanction era.
Taking advantage of crude oil reserves as much as 157,530m barrels, the value of petroleum export in this country mounted to $53,652m in 2015. Furthermore, OPEC statistics demonstrate that the annual refinery capacity of Iran reached 1,781 (1,000 b/cd) in 2015.
Without a doubt, oil production encourages the producers to proceed for the associated areas including bunkering, petrochemicals, bitumen etc.
In this regard, PD managed to run an interview with the first bunkering company in Iran to study the current situation of bunkering and the perspectives that Iranian authorities draw in this industry.
Could you introduce the company and its capabilities?
The company as an IRISL subsidiary was established in 1988 with the purpose of providing provisions and spare parts along with other ship requirements including fresh water and crew services. However, the company expanded in the course of time and focused on bunkering in Iran. In fact, QMESNG Co. was the first bunkering company in Iran. It actually established bunkering industry in Iran and other companies found the business lucrative and entered the market accordingly.
The company as an IRISL affiliated company started buying the oil and provided IRISL fleet with bunkering. However, during the sanctions the liabilities of the company underwent changes. It actually started carrying required petroleum to Iran and turned out to be specialized in the bunkering industry.
How big are the fleet and the region to operate within?
We operate 14 vessels ranging from 300 MT to 150000 MT.
The fleet operates in Persian Gulf, Oman Sea, China, and Mediterranean. We can deliver services wherever there is a business opportunity.
What is your advantage compared to your counterparts in the region?
We manage tanker storage with capacity of 50.000 CBM which is fed directly from Bandar Abbas refinery. Furthermore, as you are aware of, Qeshm Island and Bandar Abbas enjoy a strategic location and can serve as bunkering hubs for the vessels passing through the Strait of Hurmuz.
In fact, there was propaganda against Iran regarding the security of Iranian water. This led to the development of Fujairah which is fed by Iranian fuel. We need to bunker the vessels in Iran with Iranian fuel.
Moreover, Iranian refineries’ products are straight run and we do not blend; therefore supplied fuel contains minimum water and other sediments. The quality of the fuel is high compared to what is bunkered in Fujairah.
What is the development plan in QMSENG Co.?
We are going to absorb the market and start bunkering vessels in transit as well as vessels calling Iranian ports along with providing them with other supplies such as, fresh water, and gas oil in near future. All other bunker related businesses like spare parts, medical assistance, recruiting ,etc. will be available as well.
This is what Singapore is performing for the vessels. The country enjoys this through traffic transit and provides the passing ships with the variety of services.
The Iranian bunkering project creates job opportunities for the cheap labor force in the region and takes advantage of a better climate compared to its counterpart in UAE.
We are also setting up a J.V. company with a European partner to pair its potential and capabilities along with our experience and excellent geographical location . In fact, IRISL fleet already demanded considerable amount of bunkering to add its fleet to the new foreign customer which makes the project boom in the region.
The mission of the company is to bunker vessels with high quality fuel, with less delay and compatible price in compared with our regional rivals.
We target 200.000 ton per month which is easily reached through the above-mentioned J.V. company in a month.