TEHRAN: Royal Dutch Shell will begin importing Iranian crude from next month, becoming the second European oil major after France’s Total to resume purchases from the Middle Eastern nation after sanctions were lifted earlier this year. Europe’s biggest energy company booked the Delta Hellas, a Greek-flagged tanker, to lift 1.09 million barrels of crude from Iran’s Kharg Island for shipment to continental Europe, according to charter lists. Loading is due to begin at the start of July. Shell declined to comment on the shipment as it considers the information commercially sensitive.
A spokeswoman for the Hague, Netherlands-based company did confirm, however, that it had normalized relations with Iran following the lifting of sanctions. Shell repaid $2 billion of debt to Iran in the first quarter of the year, clearing a debt relating to oil shipments made in 2012 that were loaded but not paid for as sanctions were imposed prior to settlement.
Shell’s shipment from Iran is due to land in Rotterdam, Netherlands, on or about July 8, according to Reuters, which first reported the story. The sale of oil to European oil majors is a key plank of Iran’s plan to return to pre-sanction output levels. State-owned National Iranian Oil said earlier this month that its output had grown to about 3.8 million barrels per day and that exports had doubled in the six months to May to just over 2 million barrels. With U.S. firms still locked out of buying Iranian oil, much of the exports have headed toward Asia, and in particular India, China, Korea and Japan.
European buyers have proven slower to return to Iranian oil. That was partly due to a lack of available tankers as operators shied away from shipping Iranian oil and partly because of buyer’s reluctance to accept some of Iran’s contractual terms, including so-called destination clauses that determine where oil can be unloaded.
Iran has said it plans to increase oil shipments to Europe from about 400,000 barrels a day to near 700,000 within months. European buyers were acquiring about 800,000 barrels per day in 2012 prior to the embargo shutting down all Iranian oil exports to the region. Iran’s expansion in Europe faces opposition from Saudi Arabia, which has kept oil prices deliberately low to protect market share and earlier this week announced price cuts for the European market.
