China’s crude oil imports from Iran dropped by roughly 37% in November 2018, compare to its privoius month, but the Asian giant remains the main destination for Tehran’s sanctioned crude exports, and shipments are expected to rise.
According to data from online shipping monitoring service, TankerTrackers.com, some 517,143 barrels per day (Bpd) of Iranian crude went to China in November. This is a 44.85% share of total Iranian exports last month, but a large drop compared to the 820,363 Bpd imported in October.
TankerTrackers.com analysts said the monitoring of Iranian crude exports was “by far the most challenging” to date. That’s because of bad weather conditions impacting visibility and the fact Iranian vessels have traveled most of the month “in the dark,” not switching their AIS transponders on after roughly three days, as previously done.
The experts couldn’t identify some 403,088 bpd that left Iranian waters last month, corresponding to 34.96% of total Iranian shipments.