South Korea’s imports of Iranian crude dropped 43.5 percent in July from a year earlier, with buying fading amid looming U.S. sanctions against supply from the Middle Eastern nation.
South Korea shipped in 788,651 tons of crude oil from Iran last month, or 186,478 barrels per day (bpd), customs office data showed on Wednesday. That was down from around 1.4 million tons in the same month last year, but up from 686,849 tons this June.
South Korean refiners did not plan to load any Iranian crude in July amid pressure from their government and the United States and South Korea to comply with the sanctions, which should cut imports for August based on shipping times, sources said last month.
The South Korean government has been seeking waivers to the sanctions from the U.S. government.
In the first seven months of the year, South Korea’s Iranian crude imports declined to 6.92 million tons, or 239,317 bpd. That was down 35.1 percent from 10.67 million tons over the same period in 2017, according to the customs data.