China oil imports from Iran jump 36.1%

A recent report shows that China’s crude oil imports from Iran have increased more than a third in March 2014 compared to a year earlier.

China imported 555,182 barrels per day (bpd) of Iranian crude oil last month, registering a 36.1-percent rise in comparison with the corresponding period last year, Reuters reported on Monday.

Moreover, China’s oil shipments from Iran in the first quarter of this year were at 557,605 bpd, which were up 36.2 percent year-on-year.

On a daily basis, China’s March imports of Iranian crude oil rose 0.5 percent from 552,613 bpd in the preceding month.

The figures mark a continuing rise in oil exports from Iran in light of the implementation of the November 2013 interim deal between the Islamic Republic and the six major world powers over Tehran’s nuclear energy program.

Iran and the five permanent members of the UN Security Council — the US, France, Britain, Russia, China — plus Germany reached the deal on November 24, 2013, in the Swiss city of Geneva to set the stage for the full settlement of the dispute over Iran’s program. The deal took effect on January 20.

Under the Geneva deal, the six countries agreed to provide Iran with some sanctions relief in exchange for Iran agreeing to limit certain aspects of its nuclear activities during a six-month period. It was also agreed that no nuclear-related sanctions would be imposed on the Islamic Republic within the same time frame.

World oil giants, including Royal Dutch Shell, British Petroleum (BP), Malaysia’s Petronas, Spain’s Repsol, Russia’s second largest oil producer, Lukoil, France’s Total and Italy’s Eni, have shown interest in returning to Iran following the Geneva nuclear agreement.