Iran is steadily increasing its crude supplies to Europe with the realization of 80% of oil export contracts with European buyers, director of international affairs at the state-owned National Iranian Oil Company said.
“Iran has signed contracts to export between 600,000 barrels and 700,000 barrels per day to its customers in Europe. Eighty-percent of these contracts have come into effect,” Mohsen Qamsari was also quoted as saying by Shana on Saturday.
He named Italy, Greece and Spain as the main customers of Iranian crude.
Following Tehran’s historic nuclear agreement with six world powers in July, several European companies and traders rushed to resume crude imports from Iran.
The lifting of western sanctions in January allowed international vessels to load Iran’s crude oil from its terminals in the Persian Gulf without fear of the US and EU restrictions on doing business with Iran.
Iran has been pushing for long-term oil export contracts with Europeans. French oil and gas firm Total has signed a deal to take in 160,000 bpd of crude from Iran.
According to reports, Italian refiner Saras has signed a deal to import up to 60,000 bpd of oil from Iran, while Eni is in negotiations for a 100,000-bpd contract.
Qamsari said last month that more than one-third of Iran’s exports in the post-sanctions period go to European markets.
The Royal Dutch Shell, Hungary’s MOL and Tupras of Switzerland are also said to be joining the country’s growing list of European customers. According to reports, Glencore PLC and Vitol Group, the world’s two largest independent oil traders, are close to signing a long-term deal for purchasing Iranian crude.
Iran, currently the third-largest producer of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries, is raising crude production and exports to wrest back the ground it lost to other producers.
Sanctions cut Iranian crude exports from a peak of 2.5 million bpd before 2011 to just over 1 million bpd. The county’s crude output is now between 3.5 million and 3.8 million barrels a day and exports are just shy of the pre-sanctions level.
