Deputy Iranian oil minister, while noting that oil sales have begun to Poland’s second largest refinery, said relevant negotiations have kicked off with another refinery complex of the eastern European country.
On latest status of Iran’s crude exports to Polish refineries, Executive Director for International Affairs at National Iranian Oil Company (NIOC) Seyed Mohsen Ghamsari said, so far in the post-JCPOA era, two crude oil cargos have been sold to Grupa Lotos SA, Poland's second largest refiner.
He stressed that, following Lotos, the other major Polish oil refiner and petrol retailer PKN Orlen has also purchased the Iranian product; “a one-million-barrel cargo has been deployed to PKN Orlen which is one of Central Europe's largest refiners of crude oil.”
“Lotos is after signing into a long-term contract for imports of crude oil from Iran,” noted Ghamsari recalling that relevant talks have been launched with the Polish refinery.
Ghamsari underscored that oil sales to Polish refineries have so far been carried out through spot contracts; “certain barriers exist on marine shipment of cargos to Poland though the issues being talked over and will hopefully be resolved.”
PKN Orlen company announced that it had purchased one million barrels of light crude oil from the National Iranian Oil Company in the previous week. It will be delivered to Naftoport in Gdańsk in January, to be then transported to the PKN ORLEN refinery in Płock.
The newly initiated cooperation with the National Iranian Oil Company (NIOC) fits into PKN ORLEN’s oil procurement strategy designed to build commercial relations with the world’s largest oil producers and open to different supply sources.
Iran has recently focused on markets in eastern Europe as evidenced by exports of single-cargo shipments to Hungary, Poland, Belarus as well as Austria.