Energy
0

Polish Company Eying Long-Term Iran Oil Deal

Polish Company Eying Long-Term Iran Oil Deal
Polish Company Eying Long-Term Iran Oil Deal

Polish refiner Lotos is poised to sign a long-term oil deal with Iran after receiving its first supplies from OPEC’s No. 3 producer last month, the deputy head of Lotos said on Thursday.

Two tankers carrying 2 million barrels of oil from Iran arrived at the port of Gdansk on the Baltic Sea in mid-August, Reuters reported.

“After the Iranian oil is refined, we will have detailed results of the analysis, which will confirm whether we will ultimately sign a long-term agreement with Iran on oil supplies to Gdansk,” Marcin Jastrzebski told reporters.

Iran has been ramping up oil production and exports, aiming to regain market share since international sanctions over its nuclear program were lifted in January. It is currently producing slightly above 3.8 million barrels a day, according to government data.

Poland imports most of its oil and gas from Russia, but wants to reduce that dependence. Lotos’ bigger rival PKN Orlen signed an oil supply deal with Saudi Aramco earlier this year.

Lotos has said that 25% of the oil it refines comes from sources other than Russia.

The refiner had been in negotiations on buying Iranian crude following Tehran’s nuclear agreement with six world powers in July last year.

Last month, Reuters cited industry sources as saying that Poland is replacing Russian oil with Iranian oil and unsold Urals crude, Russia’s main oil export grade, is being redirected to Asia.

Poland has moved to diversify its energy supplies by shipping in crude oil from Arab brands as well as African crude and Azeri Light.

 

Financialtribune.com