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.
