Iran has formally inaugurated its new crude oil export terminal on the Sea of Oman, a project hailed by President Hassan Rouhani as a historic achievement which could prove vital in the country�s energy future.

The Goureh-Jask Crude Oil Transfer Project was inaugurated on Thursday during a video conference session attended by Rouhani and senior Oil Ministry officials in Tehran.

The project allows Iran for a first time in more than 110 years of its oil industry history to export crude from a terminal outside the Persian Gulf.

The terminal is also a first in a region where global oil producers are forced to dispatch crude tankers through the Strait of Hormuz, a narrow waterway at the mouth of the Persian Gulf where ships have been subject to attacks and sabotage in the past.

Oil reaches Jask through a 1,000-kilometer pipeline that starts from old pumping station in Goureh in southwest Iran and stretches around the Persian Gulf while travelling through three southern provinces .
�Today is a historic and big day for the Iranian nation and as time passes by the significance of this project will become clearer for the people,� said Rouhani as he described the launch as a sign of utter failure for US sanctions targeting Iran�s oil industry.
Rouhani�s website said in a report that the government had spent 530 trillion rials ($2.163 billion) on the Goureh-Jask pipeline and terminal facilities at Jask.