Iranian officials have revealed the country is working on an order for 10 VLCCs to help keep its crude flowing following the reintroduction of US sanctions.
Sources in the country told Reuters that it was in talks in South Korea over a deal, but admitted progress had been delayed by the sanctions.
"We are working on it," an official said. The South Korean government has not commented.
In 2017, TradeWinds reported that state-owned National Iranian Tanker Co (NITC) had gone out to tender for VLCC and medium-range (MR) tanker newbuildings.
It was tipped to spend more than $300m on three big tankers and two of the product carriers.
Sources told Reuters that Iran is also looking to source second-hand tankers in countries like Vietnam.
One said it was looking for middlemen in the Greek market.
Previous deals with Iran came under great scrutiny and the source said: "Iran has been looking for ships, but this time round it is going to be harder - there is so much more scrutiny now. It is going to take them longer."
A senior Iranian official added: "Plenty of countries are happy to do business with Iran. As we have done in the past, there are several ways to overcome the shortage, including using tankers of other countries."
