IRAN NUCLEAR DEAL

ASIA'S IRAN OIL BUYS START TO RISE 

AFTER NUCLEAR DEAL

Asian buyers increased purchases of Iranian crude by 25% in last month of January from a year ago as the grip of sanctions imposed by US since 2012 loosened following a landmark agreement in November to curtail Tehran’s nuclear programme.

China, India, Japan and South Korea together bought an average of 1.25 million bpd last month, government and industry data showed. They bought 1.03 million bpd in January. Increased crude exports from Iran may cap oil prices after other oil producers such as Saudi Arabia and Iraq raised output to fill the gap created by the Western sanctions and outages in North Africa and the Middle East.

Iranian exports are increasing and that means more supplies are coming into a market that is already well supplied. The import figures confirm data from sources who track tanker movements that show Iran’s exports have been rising since the nuclear deal was struck in Geneva.

Last month the United States and the European Union began following through on promised sanctions relief for Iran on oil exports, trade in precious metals and automotive services as the November agreement went into effect on Jan. 2014.

Talks on reaching a final settlement to the decade-old dispute over Iran’s nuclear programme have made a good start, European Union. Toughened sanctions placed on Iran in 2012 more than halved its crude exports, costing it billions of dollars a month in lost oil revenue.

The West says Iran’s nuclear ambitions are aimed at making a weapon. Tehran says it only wants to develop nuclear power. Japan, the world’s fourth biggest oil importer purchased 210517 bpd from Iran last month compared with 239085 bpd in January a year ago according to the trade ministry data showed here on Friday.

China is the largest oil client of Iran. China may buy more Iranian oil in 2014 as state-run trader Corp is negotiating a new condensate contact.

India’s imports from Iran more than doubled last month from December, reaching the highest since February 2012 as one state refiner returned from three month break as a buyer.

At last China, India, Japan and South Korea are together cut their purchases of Iranian crude by 15 percent in 2013 to an average of 10000bpd.