Major Rise in S. Korea’s Imports of Iran Oil in 1st Quarter of 2016: Report
TEHRAN (Tasnim) – South Korea’s imports of Iranian crude oil more than doubled in the first quarter of 2016 compared to the same period last year, a report said.
A total of 30 million barrels of Iranian crude and condensate were shipped to South Korea in the first four months of this year, up 113.5 percent from a year earlier, the Korea National Oil Corporation (KNOC) said in a statement, Yonhap news agency reported.
It added that the annual import of Iranian crude was at 87.2 million barrels in 2011, but it dropped to 56.1 million barrels in the next year in the wake of sanctions imposed for its nuclear program and further dipped to 44.9 million barrels in 2014.
SK Innovation Co., South Korea's leading refiner, and No. 4 Hyundai Oil Bank Co. have expanded purchases of Iranian oil, followed by Hanwha Total Petrochemical Co., a chemical unit under Hanwha Group, in April.
In contrast, neither GS Caltex Corp., the nation's second-largest refiner half owned by US oil giant Chevron, nor its smaller rival S-Oil Corp., a local unit of the world's largest crude exporter Saudi Aramco, import Iranian oil.
"Imports of Iranian oil will increase once remaining hurdles such as US dollar settlement are lifted when trading with Iran," an official at one of the refiners said.
The rise in South Korea’s oil imports from Iran follows the lifting of anti-Iran sanctions with the coming into force of a lasting nuclear deal between Tehran and world powers.
Iran and the Group 5+1 (Russia, China, the US, Britain, France and Germany) reached the agreement on July 14, 2015 and started implementing it on January 16.