SEOUL: South Korea’s crude imports from Iran surged 104 percent in February from a year earlier as refiners hiked purchases ahead of maintenance shutdown starting from March, according to the country’s customs data and a refining source.
South Korea imported 1.1 million tonnes of Iranian crude last month, or 294,069bpd, up 4.5 times from January and double from a year earlier, preliminary customs data showed yesterday.
In the first two months of the year, South Korea imported 173,744bpd, up 2.3 percent from a year ago, and a surge of 30 percent from the 134,000bpd that Seoul took from Iran in 2013.
Under the Geneva accord between Iran and six major powers last November that took effect in January, South Korea and other Asian buyers can hold to crude imports at the sanctions-reduced rates reached at the end of 2013.
“The two refiners had to hike the imports ahead of maintenance shutdown starting from March. Before and after the maintenance, refiners usually import more to meet annual import contracts,” a Seoul-based refining source said.
Of four South Korean refiners, SK Energy and Hyundai Oilbank are the only ones that buy Iranian oil on a regular basis. Their Iranian crude imports can vary from month to month as one of the two refiners that buy from the Opec receives the oil only every other month. SK Energy will shut a 260,000bpd No. 5 crude distillation unit (CDU) and a 57,000bpd No.1 gasoline-making unit in the second quarter for maintenance, a spokesman at parent SK Innovation Co Ltd said.
Hyundai Oilbank will shut its No.1 110,000bpd CDU in April for maintenance, it said last month.
Iran’s top four buyers — China, India, Japan and South Korea —have been steadily cutting purchases over the last two years to avoid falling foul of US and EU sanctions put in place in 2012.Reuters
