Iran’s NIOC, Spain’s Repsol Ink Oil Deal
TEHRAN (Tasnim) – Spain’s Energy Company Repsol has signed a contract with National Iranian Oil Company (NIOC) to import more crude from Iran.
NIOC and Repsol have signed an agreement whereby the Spanish energy firm would buy one million barrels of Iran's oil in July, Shana reported on Sunday.
The report added that the deal would double Iranian oil exports to the European country.
It came after Spanish buyer, Cepsa (Spanish Petroleum Company), reached an agreement earlier this month on the shipment of Iranian crude to Spain.
Iran’s oil exports are currently close to pre-sanction levels of around 2.5 million barrels per day (bpd), a recent report by Reuters said, citing shipping data by traders.
On June 14, Iranian Oil Minister Bijan Namdar Zanganeh confirmed that the country’s oil exports have surpassed 2 million barrels per day (bpd).
Zanganeh said Iran’s crude oil production in the first five months of the Iranian year 1392 (three years ago) amounted to 2.7 mln bpd but it reached over 3.8 mln bpd in the same period this year.
The country’s oil exports two years ago were around one million bpd, he said, adding that the figure has reached over two million barrels per day this year.
The increase in the country’s oil production came after the removal of anti-Tehran sanctions under the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), a lasting nuclear deal between the Islamic Republic and six world powers.
The sanctions had barred foreign investments in the Iranian oil industry and imposed a low ceiling of one million bpd on the country’s oil exports.
Zangeneh had repeatedly emphasized that the Islamic Republic was determined to regain its share of the oil market that it had lost as a result of the sanctions.
