More than 25 European and Asian-owned supertankers are shipping Iranian oil, data seen by Reuters shows, allowing Tehran to ramp up exports much faster than analysts had expected following the lifting of sanctions in January.
With international vessels supporting Iran's own tanker fleet, traders said its oil exports were now close to pre-sanction levels of around 2.5 million barrels per day (bpd).
In the Platts window deals in northwest Europe were done some 20 cents a barrel above the latest price estimates for the grade.
Vitol sold to BP a 100,000-tonne cargo of Urals in the Baltic on June 20-24 at dated Brent minus $2.40 a barrel, while Trafigura sold to Shell a parcel of the same size on June 16-20 at the same price level, sources said.
In the Mediterranean Unipec was offering 140,000 tonnes of Urals on June 24-28 at a discount of $1.90 a barrel to dated Brent without finding a seller.
TENDERS
Rosneft called a tender to sell 140,000 tonnes of Urals crude for loading from Novorossiisk between July 1 and 20, while its loading dates were not specified, traders said.
The tender closes on June 8 at 1500 Moscow time (1200 GMT).
In May Rosneft awarded Unipec in a spot tender with 140,000 tonnes of Urals crude in June.
Unipec also lifts Urals Suezmaxes from Novorossiisk as a winner of Rosneft's semmianual tender.