Iran has started the gas condensate (ultra light crude oil) sell to BP in the form of spot cargo, Mohsen Ghamsari, director of international affairs at National Iranian Oil Co (NIOC), said.
First 1-million-barrel condensate cargo was delivered to the British company recently, Ghamsari said, Mehr news agency reported.
He further said that Iran has already sold a crude oil consignment to Royal Dutch Shell Company as well, based on a spot cargo deal.
Ghamsari added that talks are underway with UK companies for signing long-term oil contracts.
Shell purchased one million barrels of crude oil from Iran last June.
Before the sanctions, imposed in 2012, Iran was exporting 800,000 barrels per day of oil to Europe.
According to Ghamsari Iran’s crude export to European countries currently stands at 600 to 650 thousand 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.
By Fatih Karimov – Trend
