South Korea to be able to import around 4 million barrels/month of Iranian oil

Baku. 6 November. REPORT.AZ/ South Korea will be able to import around 4 million barrels/month of Iranian oil under a US sanctions waiver announced Monday, but it will also continue striving to diversify its crude and condensate supply sources, three South Korean sources familiar with the matter told S&P Global Platts Tuesday.

Japan is among eight countries receiving its sanctions waiver.

Washington's decision to allow South Korea to continue importing Iranian oil may come as a relief but it would be difficult to bring in more than half the volume Seoul used to buy from the Persian Gulf producer crude and condensate traders at South Korean refiners, said.

South Korea imported an average of 12.32 million barrels/month of crude and condensate from Iran in 2017 and an average 8.34 million barrels/month over the first half of 2018, according to data from state-run Korea National Oil Corp.

South Korea will continue to diversify supply sources because the waiver is for six months.

South Korea's SK Innovation said Tuesday it was preparing to resume imports of South Pars condensate from Iran for early January delivery, but would also continue to diversify its sources of crude and condensate supply: ‘We are looking at US and Russian light grades, among others," a company official said.

SK Innovation said it had not been given any notification on how much it could import from Iran. The company imported around 1 million/month of South Pars condensate until July and it had also imported 1 million-2 million barrels/month of Forozarn crude from Iran until July.