SEOUL: South Korea’s Iranian crude oil imports fell 2.7 percent in August year-on-year, while its shipments from the OPEC country in the first eight months of 2015 dropped 10.8 percent from the year before, meeting international sanction requirements.
The United Nations endorsed a deal in July to end years of economic sanctions on Iran over its nuclear programme, but they are unlikely to be removed until next year as the agreement requires approval from U.S. Congress.
Seoul brought 552,710 tonnes of crude from Iran last month, or 130,689 barrels per day (bpd), compared with 567,913 tonnes, or 134,284 bpd, a year earlier, preliminary import data from South Korea’s customs office showed on Tuesday.
The world’s fifth-largest crude importer bought 3.78 million tonnes, or 114,138 bpd, of crude from Tehran in January-August, compared with 4.24 million tonnes, or 127,944 bpd, in the same period in 2014.
South Korea’s crude imports from Iran in 2014 were 6.2 million tonnes, or 124,497 bpd, down 7.1 percent from the 2013 average of 134,000 bpd.
Of 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.
Iran earlier this month reduced the quarterly price for its flagship crude to the lowest in three years in a bid to lure Asian buyers including South Korean refiners to lock in more term supplies next year.
The price reduction is just one of the steps being taken by Iran to ramp up output and regain market share lost since U.S. and European sanctions cut its crude oil exports by more than half.
Meanwhile, South Korea imported 34,833 tonnes of U.S. condensate last month at $75.70 per barrel on average, according to Reuters calculation based upon the customs data.
Overall, Seoul imported 11.87 million tonnes of crude last month, or 2.81 million bpd. That was 4.6-percent more than the 11.34 million tonnes imported in the same month of 2014.
Final data for August imports with more detail will be available from state-run Korea National Oil Corp later this month.
