BEIJING: China’s October Iranian crude oil imports edged down slightly from a year earlier to their lowest level in 14 months, official customs data showed on Monday, in part due to the outage at a petrochemical producer that suffered a fire in the spring.
China, still Iran’s top oil client, imported 1.44 million tonnes of Iranian oil last month, or 338,300 barrels per day (bpd), down 0.1 percent from a year ago and 18.8 percent lower from September, according to the custom data.
That was the lowest oil volumes shipped in from Iran since August 2014, and less than the latest estimate of 407,400 bpd from Thomson Reuters Oil Research & Forecasts for China’s Iranian crude imports in October. The research group expects imports from Iran to come in at 444,100 bpd in November.
For the first ten months of the year, China brought in more than 22.3 million tonnes of Iranian crude oil, or about 536,500 bpd, down 1.9 percent from the same period a year ago, the customs data showed.
The year-to-date volume is lower than a contracted amount of just over 600,000 bpd, mainly due to independent petrochemical producer Dragon Aromatics – a regular buyer of Iran’s light oil condensate – being shut after a fire in April.
China’s customs administration counts light oil condensate as part of the crude oil stream.
Also in October, crude imports from Saudi Arabia were down 12.5 percent from a year ago to 938,400 bpd, although the kingdom regained its title as China’s top supplier after it was snatched by Russia last month.
Russian imports were up 23.9 percent from a year earlier at 803,500 bpd, dropping back from a September peak to the No.3 spot behind Angola.
Iran, once the second-largest producer in the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries after Saudi Arabia, hopes to raise its crude exports by as much as 1 million bpd within months of sanctions aimed at it nuclear programme being lifted.
Over the weekend, Iran’s oil minister said the Islamic Republic did not need to seek permission from OPEC to increase oil production, Iranian state media said.
