A top American insurer says it has provided the insurance coverage for the shipment of two major crude oil cargoes from Iran to Europe.

This is already being viewed as a landmark development in clearing vital obstacles that had so far undermined the country’s oil export plans.

Joe Hughes, chairman of the New York-based American Club, an insurer to the global shipping industry, has been quoted by Bloomberg as saying that his company had insured two tankers that had taken Iran’s oil to Romania this past week.

Each of the tankers, he said, has a capacity to ship one million barrels of oil. They are among the first to go to Europe since sanctions against Iran were lifted last month.

Provision of insurance was seen as an initial sticking point for a revival of Iranian oil sales when wider sanctions against the Persian Gulf country were lifted last month, Bloomberg said.

The American Club said on 9 February that it got government permission to cover shipments by “non-US person members”, the report added.

There are other signs that indicate cover for the cargoes may become easier to obtain. Swiss Re, the global reinsurer, said this past Tuesday that it’s “now open to sanctions-compliant Iranian re-insurance business with no US nexus,” while carrying out enhanced due diligence on any potential business.

Iran said on Thursday that it had shipped more than seven million barrels of crude oil in only two days this past week thus setting a new record in the country’s oil exports not seen in several years.

Pirouz Mousavi, the managing director of the Iranian Oil Terminals Company (IOTC), said the exports of 7.1 million barrels of oil were made over the past few days through the southern Kharg terminal.

Mousavi said four million barrels were shipped to Europe and the remaining 3.1 million barrels were shipped to Iran’s traditional clients.