Indian Oil Co. hired a vessel to ship crude from Iran less than a week after loading another tanker in the Persian Gulf state, which is seeking to extend sales to Asian customers while reducing supply to Europe.
India’s largest refiner yesterday booked the Mykonos Warrior to carry 130,000 metric tons from Kharg Island on March 9 for delivery to Mundra on India’s west coast, according to shipbrokers including Poten & Partners Inc. The Liberia-flagged vessel is currently under way in the Indian Ocean, transmissions captured by AISLive on Bloomberg show.
Ajit Pathak, a New Delhi-based spokesman for Indian Oil, didn’t answer two calls to his mobile phone today seeking comment. The fixture is provisional and subject to change or cancellation. The company on Feb. 18 loaded crude on the Maharaja Agrasen from the same Iranian port for delivery to Mumbai, according to a unit of Clarkson Plc, the world’s biggest shipbroker.
Iran, the second-largest producer in the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries, on Feb. 19 said it halted crude sales to customers in France and the U.K. The move preempts a European Union embargo planned to start July 1 to protest Iran’s nuclear program. The country pumped an average 3.55 million barrels a day of oil in January, based on a Bloomberg survey of producers and analysts.
Iran exported 59 percent of its crude to China, Japan, India and South Korea in the first half of 2011, according to the latest available data from the U.S. Energy Department. France took 2 percent of Iran’s shipments and the U.K. purchased less than 1 percent.
The following table shows tankers scheduled to load crude and oil products from Iran reported so far this month, according to shipbroker reports and data compiled by Bloomberg. Volumes are in thousand tons. Some bookings are provisional:
Crude/Condensate
Vessel                  Volume      Loading             Discharge
Olympic Faith          130         March 10       Visakhapatnam
Mykonos Warrior      130         March 9           Mundra
Fortune Elephant     265         March  3           Onsan
Ruby IV                   260         March 3           Taiwan
Green Warrior           80         Feb. 26           New Mangalore
Takamine                 265         Feb. 24             China
Xin Tong Yang          265         Feb. 22              China
Maharaja Agrasen     130         Feb. 18              Mumbai
Ocean Odyssey         80          February          East (Condensate)
Oil Product
Vessel                    Volume   Loading Discharge      Cargo
Challenge  Prospect     35       March 10 Dalian      Naphtha
Brizo                          80        February China       Fuel oil
Source: Bloomberg