JOHANNESBURG, April 30 (Reuters) – South African crude oil
imports from Iran rose to 3.37 billion rand ($434.84 million) in
March from 2.8 billion the previous month, customs data showed
on Monday, indicating Pretoria had not bowed to U.S. pressure to
curb commercial links with Tehran.
The Revenue Service said Africa’s biggest economy imported
505,908 tonnes of Iranian crude in March, up from 417,188 tonnes
the previous month.
South Africa has come under Western pressure to cut Iranian
crude imports as part of sanctions designed to halt Tehran’s
suspected pursuit of nuclear weapons, although it has been
unclear how diplomatically non-aligned Pretoria is responding.
Imports declined between October and January, when they
reached zero, but have been rising again since February.
Senior energy and foreign ministry officials contradicted
each other in March as to the status of Iranian imports. Iran
has usually been South Africa’s biggest crude supplier,
accounting for a quarter of its oil imports.
According to the March data, crude imports totalled 1.6
million tonnes, with Nigeria supplying 38 percent, Iran 32
percent, Saudi Arabia 22 percent and Angola the rest.
The biggest South African buyer of Iranian crude used to be
Engen, majority-owned by Malaysian state oil group Petronas
, but the group said in April it had halted all imports
of Iranian product.
Petrochemicals group Sasol, which took 12,000
barrels of Iranian oil a day, also said it had found new
suppliers but has not named them.
(Reporting by Agnieszka Flak; Editing by Jon Herskovitz and
Helen Massy-Beresford)
