* Iran wants to up exports to India by 200,000 bpd within 6months
* Iran has over a dozen super-tankers ready for discharge
* Wants to revive business ties with European partners
* China, Japan and Korea have little room for Iran's crude
* Even modest Iranian crude exports to put pressure on oilprices (Adds Iran tanker company estimates)
By Henning Gloystein
SINGAPORE, Jan 15 (Reuters) - With Iran ready to resumebusiness as usual with the world under a historic nuclear deal,Tehran will target India, Asia's fastest-growing major oilmarket, and old partners in Europe with hundreds of thousands ofbarrels of its crude.
Iran expects the United Nations nuclear watchdog to confirmon Friday it has curtailed its nuclear programme, paving the wayfor the unfreezing of billions of dollars of assets and an endto bans that have crippled its oil exports.
Tehran plans to lift exports by 500,000 barrels per day(bpd) post-sanctions and gradually raise shipments by the sameamount again, adding to a global glut and likely putting morepressure on oil prices which have already dropped 70percent since 2014, to below $30 per barrel.
Iran has 22 Very Large Crude Carriers (VLCCs) floating offits coast, with 13 fully or almost fully loaded, mapping data on Thomson Reuters' Eikon showed, carrying enough crude to meetIndia's import needs for almost a week.
A senior Iranian source close to supply negotiations saidthat the country - which has the world's fourth-biggest provenoil reserves - was targeting India as its main destination forcrude.
"Indian crude demand is growing faster than other Asiancountries. Like our competitors, we see this country as one ofthe main targets for Asian sales," said the official, who spokeon condition of anonymity.
Iran hopes to raise its exports to India by 200,000 bpd, upfrom the 260,000 bpd currently shipped under sanctions'restrictions, the official said.
At the right price, Indian refiners said they were keen toimport more from Iran, as demand for fuel soars on 10 percentannual growth in car sales, a rate that is now faster thanChina's.
"We have a long-lasting relationship with Iran and postlifting of sanctions we will evaluate the scenario," said L KGupta, managing director of India's Essar Oil.
"It makes sense to buy oil from nearby options (like Iran),"said H. Kumar, managing director of another Indian oil firm,Mangalore Refinery and Petrochemicals, but added"intake will depend on prices."
The Iranian official said there was not much room for majorexport increases to China, South Korea or Japan due to slowingdemand and also because of a shift there towards more non-MiddleEast crudes.
A South Korean refinery source confirmed he did not expect abig increase in Iranian supplies, largely because of plentifulalternatives.
A Japanese refiner said that his firm could only takeIranian deliveries once it had insurance in place, which couldtake time.
OLD EUROPEAN PARTNERS
Iran already trades limited amounts of oil mainly with Asianbuyers legitimately under sanctions, but its crude exports havefallen to just over 1 million bpd, down from a peak of over 3million bpd in 2011, pre-sanctions.
The Iranian official said Tehran planned to revive supplydeals with European partners in order to ramp up exports.
Prior to sanctions, Iran was exporting up to 800,000 bpd toEurope with the main buyers being oil majors Royal Dutch Shell, Italy's ENI and France's Total Greek Hellenic Petroleum and Spain's Repsol and Turkish firms.
Most former buyers have repeatedly said they would be happyto resume imports but commercial details could be discussed onlyafter sanctions are lifted.
Iran's Mehr news agency quoted officials from the NationalIranian Tanker Company (NITC) as saying on Friday that as soonas sanctions are lifted some 200,000-220,000 bpd would beexported to France, Britain, Italy, Spain and Germany.
Shipping industry association BIMCO confirmed that Europeanclients would be among the first post-sanctions.
"Former clients of Iran are the ones who are likely toreturn as buyers... Italy, Spain and Greece were the top EUimporters in 2011," said Peter Sand, BIMCO's chief shippinganalyst.
Following years of under-investment, Iran needs foreign cashto modernise its oil industry.
ENI, Repsol and Total were some of the companies with thebiggest delegations at a conference in Tehran last November,during which Iran published new terms for foreign oil investors.
Prospects for exports to the Americas, never a significantmarket for Iran, appear slim. Not only do U.S. sanctionsunrelated to the nuclear issue remain in effect, but the regionis already inundated with supply from soaring U.S. and Canadianproduction.
CUT-THROAT MARKET
In a cut-throat market, Iran may also find it difficult tosell its oil as the heavy grades it mostly offers are in lowdemand.
Latin American suppliers who produce similar heavy crudeshave been seeking new buyers in Asia.
Within the Middle East, traders said Iran's main competitorwould be Iraq, which has successfully returned to Asian marketsin recent years, with exports rising above 3.5 million bpd.
In Europe, traders said Iran's crude would compete mainlywith Russian Urals and Iraqi grades, which are competitivelypriced.
In China and India, strong passenger car sales are fuelling gasoline demand, while a slowdown in Asia's heavy industriesmeans slower demand for diesel, which heavy crudes are oftenused to produce.
Iran does have light crudes, but needs them for itself toreduce gasoline imports.
Either way, Iran adding to an over supplied global oilmarket is bound to put more pressure on prices.
"With Iran's sooner return... there is still furtherdownside risk to prices this quarter," Barclays bank said.
(Reporting by Nidhi Verma in New Delhi, Florence Tan, KeithWallis and Jacob Gronholt-Pedersen in SINGAPORE, Meeyoung Cho inSEOUL, Osamu Tsukimori in TOKYO, and Amanda Cooper and SimonFalush in LONDON; Editing by Ed Davies and William Hardy)
