SEOUL: South Korea’s crude oil imports from Iran dropped 19.7 percent in June from a year earlier, and its shipments from the OPEC country in the first half of this year also declined 5.5 percent year-on-year, meeting international sanction requirements.
Of four refiners in the world’s fifth-largest crude importer, South Korea, only SK Energy Co Ltd and Hyundai Oilbank Co Ltd import Iranian oil.
Seoul imported 485,182 tonnes of crude from the Islamic country last month, or 118,546 barrels per day (bpd), compared with 604,402 tonnes, or 147,676 bpd, a year ago, South Korean preliminary customs data showed on Wednesday.
Asia’s No.4 economy bought 2.94 million tonnes, or 119,254 bpd, of crude from the Middle Eastern nation in the first half of this year, below 3.11 million tonnes, or 126,145 bpd, in the same period in 2014.
South Korean crude shipments 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.
