South Korea has resumed imports of Iranian crude oil after halting them in July due to Western sanctions targeting Tehran's nuclear programme, a report said today.
SK Energy, the refining arm of SK Innovation Co, received a shipment of two million barrels in an Iranian tanker earlier this week, a company official told Dow Jones Newswires.
Another refiner, Hyundai Oilbank, expects to receive a shipment of two million barrels this month, said another company official who declined to be named.
Both refiners had stopped imports of crude oil from Iran after July 1 when European sanctions effectively cut off access to insurance on Iranian shipments.
The resumption came after Tehran offered to insure the shipments itself.
The South bought 9.4% of its crude oil from Iran last year. It had been sharply reducing purchases this year in return for a waiver from separate US sanctions on Tehran.
South Korea is a close ally of the United States, which stations 28,500 troops in the country to deter any North Korean attack.
But Iran is the South's third-largest trade market in West Asia. Tehran warned in June it would reconsider ties with Seoul if it stopped oil imports.
