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MOSCOW, June 8 (Reuters) - Royal Dutch Shell hasresumed purchases of Iranian crude, becoming the second majoroil firm after Total to restart trade with Tehranafter the lifting of sanctions, trading sources said and shiptracking data showed.
Iran has been trying to claw back its market share sinceinternational sanctions were lifted in January and regaining a major buyer such as Shell will further aid its cause.
Shell declined to comment.
According to shipping data, Shell fixed Suezmax tanker DeltaHellas to bring 130,000 tonnes of Iranian crude from KhargIsland on July 8 to continental Europe.
Trading sources said the cargo would unload in Rotterdam.
Shell repaid its outstanding debt to Iran from pre-sanctiontimes earlier this year.
Besides Total, European purchases of Iranian crude have goneto refineries in Spain, Greece and Italy since the sanctionswere lifted in January this year.
Tehran's re-entry to the oil market has heightened tensionswith arch-rival Saudi Arabia and attempts by OPEC to concoct astrategy to boost oil prices have been scuppered as a result.
Iran has resisted Saudi Arabia's calls for output caps asRiyadh is itself aggressively expanding its buyer list ahead ofan IPO for its state firm.
A production freeze deal collapsed in April when Tehranskipped a key meeting in Qatar that included non-OPEC members.OPEC delegates also failed to agree on a plan during their Junemeeting.
Major oil producers including Venezuela and Nigeria havebeen hit hard by a steep fall and protracted weakness in globaloil prices.
Iran's crude exports are now close to pre-sanctions levelsof around 2.5 million barrels per day. (Reporting by Olga Yagova and Dmitry Zhdannikov in London,Writing by Julia Payne; Editing by David Clarke and Mark Potter)