TEHRAN: The first shipment of Iranian crude oil to the European Union in more than three years is poised to depart as soon as Monday, Iranian officials said.
A tanker chartered by French energy giant Total SA is expected to sail with 2 million barrels on Monday, the officials said. Two others will carry 1 million barrels each for Spain’s Compañía Española de Petróleos, or Cepsa, and Litasco, the trading arm of Russia’s Lukoil, they said.
The ships are carrying a portion of a flood of new oil that Iran says it is producing since world powers agreed to lift Western sanctions related to the country’s nuclear program. Those sanctions crippled Iran’s oil industry, reducing its export capacity by more than 1 million barrels a day.
Rokneddin Javadi, the deputy oil minister, was quoted by state television broadcaster Press TV on Sunday as saying that Iran’s crude-oil production had increased by 400,000 barrel each day. That is the bulk of its stated short-term, post-sanctions target of ramping up production by 500,000 barrels a day.
