Iranian President Hassan Rouhani announced that Iran had begun operations at a new oil terminal near the port of Jask in the Gulf of Oman by loading a 100-metric-ton shipment of petroleum there. The new terminal will enable Iranian tankers to bypass the Strait of Hormuz, a major chokepoint between the Persian Gulf and the Arabian Sea. Rouhani framed the new installation, which took about two years to build, as a way around a possible blockade in the event of armed conflict. According to Rouhani, Iran intends to export 1 million barrels of oil per day (bpd) from the site; the facility's present capacity is 350,000 bpd. The terminal is supplied by a 1,000-kilometer pipeline extending from the city of Goreh in Bushehr Province.