SEOUL: South Korea’s imports of oil from Iran more than doubled in the first quarter of this year from a year earlier after international sanctions on the Middle East country were lifted in January, industry data showed on Tuesday. According to the data, imports of Iranian crude oil and condensates reached 22.85 million barrels in the January-March period, compared with 10 million barrels a year ago.
By value, South Korean imports of Iranian crude jumped 17.6 percent on-year to $629 million in the first three months of the year. Currently, only two oil refiners — SK Innovation Co. and Hyundai Oilbank Co. — import Iranian crude oil. Iran had been a major exporter of crude to South Korea, but international sanctions on Tehran for its nuclear program had sharply reduced bilateral trade.
Iran with a population of over 80 million is a resource-rich nation, holding the world’s fourth-largest oil reserves and the second-largest gas reserves. Last year, South Korea imported $2.20 billion worth of crude oil from Iran, down 51 percent from the previous year and far lower than $9.36 billion in 2011. By volume, imports of crude and condensates came to 42.4 million barrels last year.
Industry watchers said a large chunk of the import surge during the first quarter was driven by condensates, which are very similar to light stabilized crude oil and are used as feedstock for oil refining and other petrochemical industries. So far, South Korea has been importing condensates from Qatar and the U.S., but after the lifting of sanctions on Iran, local oil refiners sharply jacked up the imports of condensates from Iran.
