Executive Director for International Affairs at National Iranian Oil Company (NIOC) Seyyed Mohsen Ghamsari pointed to negotiations between NIOC and Grupa Lotos S.A. over inking a long-term oil sale contract saying “talks have kicked off with the Polish company though no final agreement has been signed yet.”
The official emphasized that so far two million barrels of crude oil have been delivered to Lotos; “both sides are seeking to seal a long term oil deal.”
He deemed Eastern Europe as a new market for Iranian crude in the post-JCPOA era adding “in addition to Poland, Iran has so far sold a one-million-barrel cargo to Hungary as well as that relevant negotiation have begun with other states in Eastern Europe.”
NIOC has so far deployed oil shipments to MOL of Hungary, Poland’s Lotos as well as OMV of Austria while Belarus has also made a proposal to import the Iranian product.
Deputy Head of Lotos Marcin Jastrzebski has noted that Polish refiner Lotos could sign a long-term oil deal with Iran after receiving its first supplies from Iran last month.
Two tankers carrying 2 million barrels of oil from Iran arrived at the port of Gdansk on the Baltic Sea in mid-August.
"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," he told reporters.
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.
Besides Poland, Bosnia and Herzegovina has also turned into a new customer of Iran’s oil and primary talks have kicked off between NIOC and Russia’s Zarubezhnefta to export crude to the European country.
NIOC Managing Director Ali Kardor had earlier said that Zarubezhnefta owns a refinery in Bosnia and Herzegovina and negotiations are underway to supply the Bosnian firm with crude oil.
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