Bloomberg: Iran Oil Sanctions Boosting Returns for Nordic American

“European sanctions on buying oil from Iran are turning into a windfall for owners of Suezmax tankers, shipping the most cargoes in at least nine years as Saudi Arabia and Iraq increase supply. . . . Saudi Arabian output is now within 1 percent of a record and Iraq is pumping the most since 2000, compensating for Iran, once OPEC’s second-biggest producer, which is exporting about 50 percent less oil than last year. The 27-nation European Union imposed an embargo in July over Iran’s nuclear program. The extra cargoes are helping to diminish a glut of Suezmaxes that caused earnings for the ships to drop 59 percent this year.  ‘The canal trade is becoming a new mainstay, said Jeff McGee, the head of marine research and consulting at Poten & Partners Inc., a shipbroker in New York. There was a heavy appetite in the Mediterranean for Iranian oil, and now they have to get it from somewhere else.”