"Iran is ready to give total insurance for the transport of its oil... and the commitments by Iranian insurers are no different from those by Western insurers and therefore all risks and dangers are insured," Iran's OPEC representative, Mohammad Ali Khatibi, was quoted as saying by Iran, the state-run newspaper.
The Fars news agency cited an "informed source" as saying that the government had given the central state insurance agency, Bimeh Markazi, a line of credit worth several billion dollars to insure the tankers. It said 10 percent of the money had already been transferred. The measure, apparently aimed at any buyer of Iranian crude worldwide, expands on a promise of insurance for deliveries of its oil using Iranian tankers to major customers China and India. South Korea is also mulling joining the offer. European insurers accounted for 90 percent of coverage for Iran before the EU sanctions took effect on 1 July. A European analyst in Tehran noted that the 40 tankers in Iran's fleet owned by the NITC, formerly known as the National Iranian Tanker Company, each had a long-distance capacity of up to two million barrels of oil. Tehran has ordered 12 new supertankers from China and should receive the first in December.
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