China's crude imports from Iran last month surged 35.5% from a year earlier to 1.44 million tons, or an average 340,027 barrels per day, detailed data from the General Administration of Customs showed. Meanwhile, Essar Oil imported 83 percent more of Iranian oil compared with the previous month.
China imported less crude from Saudi Arabia and Angola in October despite its total crude imports rising 18% from a year earlier to 5.7 million b/d, according to Platts.
On the other hand, China's crude imports from Iraq in October jumped 45.1% year on year to 1.96 million tons, although the volumes slumped 20.5% from September.
Omani shipments to China in October rose 7.6% to 2.38 million tons while cargoes from the United Arab Emirates climbed 42.2% to 1 million tons.
Meanwhile, Russian crude deliveries to China jumped 38.7% year on year to 2.76 million tons last month, pushing Russia to third largest supplier.
For the first time, imports from Panama showed up in the Chinese customs data, with inflows of 200,807 tons last month.
Yet imports of Saudi crude slumped 9.6% to 41.14 million tons while Angolan deliveries slipped 1.5% to 33.34 million tons over the period.
Chinese refiners say they have taken less Saudi crude than expected this year because of more competitive crudes from other countries, while Angola's state-owned Sonangol previously said it has seen appetite from China wane because of slowing economic growth.
On the other hand, Russian crude exports to China increased 27.6% to 26.07 million tons over January to October and Oman was in fourth place with 24.46 million tons, a 20.6% year-on-year increase.
China's imports from Iraq rose 24.3% over the same period to 23.5 million tons while Iranian shipments rose 33.4% to 22.77 million tons.
So far this year, the Middle East has accounted for 52.2% of China's crude imports, up from 51.5% over January to October last year, while the share of African crudes has fallen from 23.2% to 22% over the same period.
Latin America accounted for 10.9% of China's total crude imports this year, rising from 9.4% previously.
Iran, however, remained China's sixth-largest supplier of crude oil last month. Iranian crude accounted for 6% of China's total imports.
This is while Iranian Ambassador to Beijing Ali Asghar Khaji and Head of China's National Petroleum Company (CNPC) Zhou Jiping underlined the need for the further expansion of cooperation between the two countries in the oil sector, in a meeting in the Chinese capital on Saturday.
Essar Imports Up 83%
Essar Oil, a key Indian buyer of Iranian crude, shipped in 83 percent more oil from the OPEC member in October compared with the previous month, tanker arrival data made available to Reuters showed.
The private refiner imported 165,900 barrels per day (bpd) from Iran in October, about 56.4 percent more than a year earlier, the data showed.
Essar's overall shipments from Iran in April-October, the first seven months of the current contract year and the financial year, totaled about 103,000, about 13.2 percent higher than a year earlier, the data showed. Essar's total crude imports in October rose nearly 25.5 percent from a year earlier to
368,000 bpd.
New Delhi purchased about 309,900 barrels per day (bpd) of Iranian crude in October, which is the highest since March and up 28 percent from September.
India’s Essar company and Mangalore Refinery and Petrochemical Ltd (MRPL) were respectively the biggest buyers of Iranian oil in October.
The data also showed that Iran accounted for about 7.2 percent of India’s crude oil imports in the first ten months of 2014, compared with 4.9 percent last year.
India’s oil purchase from Iran increased about 40 percent over January-October partly due to the interim nuclear deal signed between Tehran and the six world powers last November, the report added.
Last week, India paid $400 million to Iran, taking the total oil payments made to the country towards past dues to $1.3 billion.
Mangalore Refinery and Petrochemicals, the nation's largest buyer in the public sector, paid $154 million while private sector Essar Oil paid about $201 million. Of the remainder, Indian Oil Corp (IOC) paid $42 million and Hindustan Petroleum Corp (HPCL) $3 million.
