S. Korea’s imports of Iran oil fall 39.3pc

SEOUL: South Korea’s March crude oil imports from Iran dropped 39.3 per cent from a year earlier on slowing demand for Iranian oil, the country’s customs data showed yesterday.

Last month, the world’s fifthbiggest crude oil importer, imported 1.37 million tonnes of Iranian crude, or 324,612 barrels per day (bpd), from 2.26 million tonnes from the previous year when the import volume hit a record high, according the customs data.

South Korea, one of Asia’s major Iranian oil customers, mainly buys condensate, or an ultralight oil, but its data does not provide a breakdown of imports by types.

Seoul has reduced its purchases of Teheran’s oil in recent months compared to last year’s levels, despite the Middle Eastern country’s efforts to retain its Asian buyers by cutting official selling prices.

For the first quarter of this year, South Korea’s imports from Iran fell 39.4 per cent to 3.45 million tonnes, or 280,736 bpd, versus 5.69 million tonnes over the same period last year, the data showed.

Meanwhile, crude imports from Qatar in the January-March period of this year were 2.19 million tonnes, or 178,652 bpd, up 2.4 per cent from 2.14 million tonnes during the same period last year.

South Korea typically switches to Qatari condensate to replace Iranian one.

Overall, South Korea’s March crude oil imports were 10.91 million tonnes, or 2.58 million bpd, down 14 per cent from 12.68 million tonnes from last year, according to the data.

In the first three months of this year, South Korea imported 36.70 million tonnes of crude, or nearly three million bpd, down 0.4 per cent from 36.88 million tonnes from the previous year.

The country’s final data for March crude imports data will be released by Korea National Oil Corp later this month.