25% Increase in Iran's Oil Exports to Asia in Five Months

Official customs statistics and ship tracking data indicate that Iran has increased its oil exports to its four Asian customers by approximately 25% during the first five months of the current calendar year. According to Reuters, Iran's four main customers in Asia, including China, India, Japan, and South Korea, purchased an average of over 1.353 million barrels of oil per day from Iran between January and May. These countries also increased their oil purchases from Iran by 35% in May compared to the same month in 2015, reaching 1.623 million barrels per day. This figure represents the highest level of oil purchases from Iran by these four major Asian customers in the past 4.5 years. Reuters did not mention the total oil export statistics for Iran in May, but the latest report from the International Energy Agency indicates that Iran exported about 2.1 million barrels of crude oil per day in that month. Before sanctions, Iran's oil exports were 2.2 million barrels per day, but after 2012 and the imposition of Western sanctions, this figure dropped to about one million barrels. Customs data and ship tracking also indicate that Iran exported just over one million barrels of crude oil per day in the first five months of the previous year. Meanwhile, according to Reuters, South Korea increased its oil purchases from Iran by 120% (more than double) and India increased its imports by 64% during the January-May period. China reduced its oil purchases from Iran by about 1.4%, while Japan increased its purchases by 1.9%. However, official data shows that China increased its oil imports from Iran by about 20% in the last month compared to May of the previous year. In total, China purchased over 565,000 barrels per day, India 334,000 barrels, Japan 192,000 barrels, and South Korea 262,000 barrels of oil from Iran in the first five months of the current year. An interesting aspect of Iran's oil exports is that Japan, which had been the third-largest importer of Iranian oil in recent years, has now been overtaken by South Korea, becoming the fourth-largest oil customer of Iran in Asia. This change is due to a significant increase in Seoul's oil imports from Iran, which even saw a 2.5-fold increase compared to the same period in 2015, reaching 317,000 barrels per day. Japan also increased its oil purchases from Iran by over 60% last month, reaching 308,000 barrels per day, the highest figure for the country since 2012. Sanctions against Iran were lifted in January of this year following the signing of the nuclear agreement known as the JCPOA. According to the U.S. Energy Information Administration, Iran's net revenue from oil exports in the first five months of this year was about $11 billion, compared to approximately $27 billion for the entire year of 2015.