South Korea quadruples Iranian oil imports

According to media reports, Iran’s Oil Minister Bijan Zanganeh stated that South Korea’s oil imports from Iran reached up to 400,000 barrels per day (bpd) following removal of sanctions.

Iran has swiftly boosted oil exports to South Korea from 100,000 bpd to 400,000 bpd since sanctions imposed on Iran by the United States, the United Nations and European Union were lifted on January 16 following the confirmation of Tehran’s compliance with an agreement which required it to curb its nuclear program. Meanwhile, some US sanctions remain in place. Two countries were told to be working on solving banking difficulties encountered when transferring payments.

Data from Energy Aspects showed that global imports of Iranian crude rose to 1.90 million bpd in March, up from 1.51 million bpd in the previous month.