Poland’s Grupa Lotos has bought 2 million barrels of crude from Iran in a one-off purchase, an Iranian oil official was quoted as saying on Saturday by the oil ministry’s news agency SHANA.
Mohsen Ghamsari, the director for international affairs at National Iranian Oil Company (NIOC), said the cargo was loaded at Iran’s Kharg Island last week.
“Signing a long term contract would depend on the two countries’ situation,” he added.
“A supertanker with Iranian crude oil has headed to Poland’s Baltic Sea Port of Gdansk for the first time since the removal of anti-Tehran sanctions.” Tasnim news agency reported.
According to trade sources and ship-tracking data, the Atlantas Very Large Crude Carrier (VLCC), destined for Gdansk, left Iran’s main oil export terminal Kharg Island laden with 2 million barrels of crude on June 27.
The cargo is the first Iranian crude sold into this part of the Baltic Sea market.
It was not immediately clear whether the buyer was Polish refiners PKN Orlen or Grupa Lotos, or whether the oil would remain in Poland or be shipped to Germany, which is connected by pipeline to Gdansk, according to Reuters.
In May, Poland’s deputy energy minister said the country was in talks with Iran over cooperation in the oil and gas sector.
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.
The sanctions were lifted after Tehran and the Group 5+1 (Russia, China, the US, Britain, France, and Germany) on July 14, 2015 reached an agreement on Iran’s peaceful nuclear program and started implementing it on January 16.
