Mohsen Qamsari, the director for international affairs of
the National Iranian Oil Company (NIOC), has stated that Poland’s Grupa Lotos
has bought 2 million barrels of crude from Iran in a one-off purchase.
Qamsari has said that the cargo was loaded at Iran’s Kharg
Island last week.
Recently, a supertanker with Iranian crude was heading
toward Poland’s Baltic Sea port of Gdansk.
This further showed how Iran continues to claw back market share after
the lifting of Western sanctions.
The Atlantas Very Large Crude Carrier (VLCC) left Iran's
main oil export terminal Kharg Island laden with 2 million barrels of crude on
June 27.
Nearly wholly dependent on oil from Russia, Polish refiners
are taking advantage of the turf war and cheap oil prices to try alternative
grades and gain a stronger negotiating position with Russian producers.
Lotos started taking Saudi oil last year - in a development
that Moscow called a major challenge - and PKN Orlen recently signed a supply
deal with Saudi Aramco, its first long-term deal with a supplier from the Gulf
region.
Both companies said they were also interested in running
Iranian oil in their refineries, Reuters added.
Apart from Poland, Spain and Italy among other European
countries have also recently taken measures to import crude oil from Iran.