South Korea ups import of Iranian oil
By Sara Rajabova
New report reveals that one of the main buyers of Iranian oil, South Korea, increased its oil imports from the energy rich country in June.
The report showed that South Korea more than doubled its crude oil imports from Iran in June month-on-month.
Customs data showed that Seoul's crude imports from Iran stood at 604, 402 tonnes or 147,676 barrels per day (bpd) in June, up from 284,327 tonnes the month before, Reuters reported.
"The figure also showed a 7 percent rise in Seoul's oil imports from Iran in comparison to June 2013, which was 565,444 tonnes," the report said.
Korea National Oil Corp (KNOC) said Iran is the fifth largest crude oil supplier to South Korea after Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, the UAE and Qatar.
Earlier in March, South Korea made the first payment of its $ 550 million debt to Iran for oil imports following partial relief in sanctions against the country in line with a nuclear deal inked between Tehran and the five permanent members of the UN Security Council - Russia, China, France, Britain and the US - plus Germany in Geneva last November.
Under the Geneva interim deal, the six countries agreed to ease some of the existing sanctions against the Islamic Republic in exchange for Iran agreeing to limit certain aspects of its nuclear activities during a six-month period.
On the other hand, South Korea's oil shipments from Iran in the first half of this year fell 11 percent year on year, or below last year's daily average, customs data showed on July 15.
The country's Iran oil intake in January-June of this year marked 3.1 million tonnes or 126,145 bpd, meaning 11 percent lower than 3.5 million tonnes or 141,839 bpd imported a year earlier. It was also 6 percent less than last year's average of 134,000 bpd, according to the data and Reuters calculation.
South Korea and other Asian buyers are supposed to hold their crude imports from the OPEC member at 2013 level or between one million and 1.1 million bpd - under the terms of the Geneva accord.
An interim nuclear agreement between Iran and six world powers requires Tehran to keep its crude exports at one million barrels a day on average over six months ending July 20.