India's Essar Oil, the top buyer of Iranian crude, imported about 18% less oil from Iran in June compared with a year ago, according to tanker arrival data obtained from trade sources and ship-tracking services on the Thomson Reuters terminal. Essar shipped in about 178,100 barrels per day of oil from Iran last month, a decline of about 5% from May, the data showed. Essar's oil imports from Iran averaged at about 154,200 bpd in the first half of 2016 compared with 99,200 bpd in the previous year, when the private refiner had to cut imports under pressure from sanctions against Iran's nuclear program, the data showed. Iran's share in overall imports by Essar Oil in the January-June period rose to about 44% from about 29% in the year-ago period. China is currently the No.1 customer of Iran's crude, ahead of India, Japan and South Korea. China took in more than 780,00 bpd of oil from Iran last month.
