OREANDA-NEWS. Polish oil company Grupa Lotos, operator of the 210,000 b/d Gdansk refinery, has bought a cargo of 2mn bl of medium sour Iranian Light crude in a "test shipment" which may be followed by more purchases.

Lotos said today that it was the buyer of the crude on very large crude carrier VLCC Atlantas that left Kharg Island on 27 June heading to Gdansk. Lotos said it expects to discharge the tanker in Gdansk in mid August after earlier ship-to-ship reloading of 700,000 bl of crude to a smaller vessel allowing Atlantas to pass through the Danish straits.

Lotos said that its agreement to buy the cargo from Iran's state-owned NIOC is a one-off. But both sides have "the intention to continue cooperation in the area of crude shipments to Gdansk", Lotos said.