Baku, Azerbaijan, July 2
By Fatih Karimov – Trend:
Iran has sent a consignment of two million barrels of crude oil to Poland, Mohsen Ghamsari, director of the International Affairs Department at National Iranian Oil Company, said.
Ghamsari said that Tehran has sold the oil consignment to Poland in the form of spot cargo, the oil ministry’s SHANA news agency reported July 2.
The tanker carrying the consignment left Iran's main oil export terminal Kharg Island last week, he added.
The deal is a result of three months of negotiations with Polish Lotos refinery, he said, adding that the talks on oil export which most likely will be fruitful are underway with various countries.
Earlier, Reuters quoted trade sources as saying that a supertanker with Iranian crude is heading toward Poland's Baltic Sea port of Gdansk.
The Atlantas Very Large Crude Carrier (VLCC) left Kharg Island on June 27 and is moving to Gdansk, according to report.
The cargo is the first Iranian crude oil sold to this part of the Baltic Sea market since January's lifting of sanctions, intensifying the battle for the market share between top producers including Russia and Saudi Arabia, Reuters emphasized.
Before sanctions, Iran was exporting about 2.2 million barrels per day (bpd). July exports are expected to be around 2.1 million bpd, up about 70 percent year-on-year.