SEOUL: South Korea’s crude oil shipments from Iran rose 83.4 percent in October from a year ago, helping the imports in the first ten months of 2015 up 0.4 percent, although the 10-month purchase still met sanction requirements over Tehran’s nuclear programme.
The world’s fifth-largest crude importer brought 519,620 tonnes of Iranian crude in October, or 122,865 barrels per day (bpd), compared with 283,287 tonnes, a year ago, preliminary data from its customs office showed on Sunday.
Under the July 14 accord with the United States and other countries, Iran must dismantle large parts of its disputed nuclear programme before international sanctions, imposed over suspicion it had bomb-making capabilities, can be lifted.
Most analysts expect this process, which began on Oct. 18, to take at least four to six months for Iran to fulfil its commitments under the July nuclear agreement with major powers in time to have sanctions lifted by the end of the year, its atomic energy chief said earlier this month.
The Sunday customs data showed Seoul bought 5.10 million tonnes, or 123,056 bpd, of crude from Tehran in January-October, up 0.4 percent from 5.08 million tonnes in the same period in 2014 but still below last year’s import average as the sanctions on Tehran restrict to import no higher than last year’s levels.
South Korea’s crude imports from Iran in 2014 were 6.2 million tonnes, or 124,497 bpd. Of the total four South Korean refiners, SK Energy Co Ltd and Hyundai Oilbank Co Ltd import oil from Iran. Their imports typically swing from month to month.
Overall, Seoul imported 11.18 million tonnes of crude last month, or 2.64 million bpd, up 12.1 percent from 9.98 million tonnes a year ago. Final data for October imports with more detail will be available from state-run Korea National Oil Corp later this month.
