From The Wall Street Journal:
The first shipment of Iranian crude oil to the European Union in over three years sailed Monday, with two more poised to follow in the coming days, Iranian officials said.
A tanker chartered by French energy giant Total SA sailed with 2 million barrels on Monday, the officials said. Another carrying 1 million barrels for Spain’s Cia. Española de Petróleos, or Cepsa, is poised to follow Tuesday, they said. A third vessel, also of 1 million barrels and booked by Litasco, the trading arm of Russia’s Lukoil, arrived this weekend at the Iranian terminal of Kharg Island, and its loading will follow soon after, the officials said.
The ships are part 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.
