Baku, Azerbaijan, Oct. 9
By Fatih Karimov – Trend:
Iran is negotiating with Polish Lotos refinery to sign a long-term oil export contract, Mohsen Ghamsari, director for International Affairs at National Iranian Oil Company (NIOC), said.
Iran has already sold a 2-million-barrel crude oil consignment to Lotos in the form of spot cargo, Ghamsari said, Mehr news agency reported Oct. 9.
Talks for signing a long-term deal have started, he said, adding that no final agreement has been signed yet.
Ghamsari further said that Iran sees Eastern Europe as new crude oil market in post-sanctions era.
Earlier in June, Reuters quoted trade sources as saying that a supertanker with Iranian crude is heading toward Poland's Baltic Sea port of Gdansk.
The cargo was 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), including 800,000 barrels to Europe.
Ghamsari added that Iran’s crude export to European countries currently stands at 600,000-650,000 barrels a day.
Iran’s August crude oil exports jumped 15 percent from July to more than 2 million barrels per day. The volume is close to Tehran's pre-sanctions shipment levels in 2011.
The strong demand in Iran’s crude in Asia and Europe has enabled it to raise its oil output to just over 3.8 million bpd, still below the 4 million bpd level termed by Tehran as a precondition for discussing output limits with other oil producers.