Iran’s oil sales to Asia up to 92%

Iran has reported a whopping jump in its oil exports to Asia, emphasizing that its supplies to the world’s largest consumption zone are now much closer to pre-sanctions levels.   

Iran’s Ministry of Petroleum in an announcement said exports of crude oil to Asian clients for August stood at around 1.7 million barrels per day (mb/d).  The figure showed an increase of 92 percent year-on-year, the Ministry said.

It added that Asian countries currently comprise 63 percent of Iran’s oil export destinations. 

Earlier, Reuters quoted market data as showing that Iran’s oil sales to Asian clients for July stood at an average of 1.6 mb/d, adding that the figure showed an increase of above 60 percent compared to the same period last year. 

China imported 0.56 mb/d which was the largest volume of imports among the four Asian clients of Iran’s oil, Reuters said. India was the second biggest importer of Iranian oil at 0.52 mb/d followed by South Korea and Japan each respectively with import volumes of 0.29 mb/d and 0.25 mb/d.

Iran’s Petroleum Minister Bijan Zanganeh said in mid-October that Iran’s oil production had already reached close to pre-sanctions levels.  Zanganeh emphasized that the country is currently producing about four million barrels of oil per day.

In mid-January, a series of economic sanctions that had been imposed on Iran for multiple years were removed after a deal between the country and the P5+1 – the five permanent members of the UN Security Council plus Germany – was implemented.

The sanctions barred foreign investments in the Iranian oil industry and also imposed a low ceiling of 1 million bpd on the country’s oil exports among a series of other economic restrictions.