The National Iranian Oil Refining and Distribution Company (NIORDC), a downstream affiliate of the Iranian Ministry of Petroleum, has signed a €372m (US$424m) Memorandum of Understanding with the private Iranian bank Bank Mellat to finance the construction of a new 150,000 bbl/d oil products pipeline between Rafsanjan in central Iran and Mashhad in the northeast of the country. Construction is expected to take around four years. The 1,000 km-long Tabesh project will be connected to an existing oil products pipeline between Rafsanjan and the southern city of Bandar Abbas, where the 360,000 b/d Persian Gulf Star (PGS) condensate splitter is located. The new pipeline could be expanded to supply neighbouring countries, including Afghanistan and Pakistan.