Iran Storing Crude on Fleet of Tankers

TEHRAN (FNA)- Iran, OPEC’s second-largest oil producer, is using 20 tankers to collect and store crude, the vessel-tracking service PetroLogistics Ltd said.

“It’s 20 tankers now, and growing,” PetroLogistics founder Conrad Gerber said Wednesday from the company’s Geneva headquarters.

The country was using 10 tankers as of May 2 to hold at least 20 million barrels of crude, equal to about five days’ worth of the nation’s output.

Some of the 20 ships are being used as “mother” tankers to transfer oil to customers’ vessels, Gerber said.

Iran has probably raised output by 100,000 barrels a day to 3.65 million barrels a day this month, PetroLogistics’ preliminary data showed.