June 24 (Bloomberg) -- Iran, OPEC's second-largest oil producer, is seeking to hire a supertanker to store crude oil in the Persian Gulf for as long as 60 days, three shipbrokers said.

National Iranian Tanker Co. is seeking a very large crude carrier, or VLCC, to store oil for 30 to 60 days from July 7, according to Charlie Fowle from London-based Galbraith's Ltd., Nikos Varvaropoulos from Optima Shipbrokers in Athens and Halvor Ellefsen at SeaLeague AS in Oslo.

Iran had to use as many as 15 VLCCs for storage in the last several months while its refinery customers carried out annual repair work. Hojatollah Ghanimifard, executive director of international affairs at the National Iranian Oil Co., said June 2 that the country would cut the backlog by mid-summer.

Nobody was immediately available for comment at National Iranian Oil Co.'s office for international affairs in Tehran today, when contacted by Bloomberg News today.

Saudi Arabia is the largest member of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries.

To contact the reporter on this story: Alaric Nightingale in London at Anightingal1@bloomberg.net; Ladane Nasseri in Tehran at lnasseri@bloomberg.net.

Last Updated: June 24, 2008 06:22 EDT