Jan 25 (Reuters) - OPEC's second largest producer,
Iran, sells large volumes of oil to China, India, South Korea,
Japan and Italy. But Greece, Turkey, South Africa and Sri Lanka
rely most heavily on Iranian oil as a percentage of imports.
EU figures show imports of Iranian crude were up more than 7
percent in the third quarter of 2011 compared to the second
quarter. The EU says it imported about 700,000 bpd of Iranian
crude oil in the third quarter of 2011, compared to about
655,000 bpd in the second quarter.
The European Union agreed on Jan. 23 to ban Iranian oil
imports, but the embargo will not be fully implemented until
July 1, to avoid harming economies to whom Iran has been a major
supplier.
The EU move follows new financial sanctions signed into law
by U.S. President Barack Obama on Dec. 31, which aim to make it
difficult for countries to buy Iranian oil in an attempt to
discourage Tehran's nuclear programme.
Iran produces about 3.5 million barrels per day (bpd) of
crude with another 500,000 bpd of condensate - light
hydrocarbon liquids. Iran exports about 2.6 million bpd, of
which about 50,000 bpd is refined products, the International
Energy Agency (IEA) estimates.
The top 10 buyers of Iranian crude last year were as
follows. Figures for EU countries are from the bloc's Eurostat
office and are for the third quarter. Figures for
other OECD countries are from the IEA and for the second
quarter. Figures for China, India and South Africa are for the
first half of 2011 from the U.S. Energy Information
Administration (EIA).
Country Imports bpd Percent Imports
1. China 543,000 10
2. India 341,000 11
3. Japan 251,000 5.9
4. Italy 204,000 13.2
5. South Korea 239,000 7.4
6. Turkey 217,000 30.6
7. Spain 170,000 16.2
8. Greece 158,000 53.1
9. S.Africa 98,000 25
10.France 75,000 6.0
Sri Lanka imported 39,000 bpd in the first half of the year,
IEA data shows. It is completely reliant on Iranian oil.
Iran holds around 137 billion barrels of proven oil
reserves, or nearly 10 percent of the world total, according to
the BP Statistical Review of World Energy 2011.
Despite sitting on the world's second largest reserves of
natural gas, Iran's growing appetite for its own gas, combined
with tightening international sanctions that have throttled its
fledgling liquefied natural gas (LNG) programme, have made it a
net gas importer for most of the last decade.
Natural gas accounts for 54 percent of Iran's total domestic
energy consumption, while most of the remainder of energy
consumption is attributable to oil, according to the EIA.
(Compiled by Christopher Johnson and Yeganeh Torbati; Editing
by William Hardy)
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