Iran’s oil exports stood at 2.3 million barrels per day during the first four months of the current fiscal that started on March 21, higher than its average volumes over the past year.
According to Shana, the Oil Ministry's news portal, the country has sold 2.3 million barrels of crude per day to European and Asian countries between March 21 and July 22.
Notwithstanding looming US sanctions after US President Donald Trump's withdrawal from Iran nuclear deal in May and his decision to reimpose oil sanctions, the country's traditional customers, namely China and India, are still importing their much-needed fuel from Iran.
Iran’s largest oil customer—China—saw its imports increase by nearly 2% on the year to around 525,000 bpd in June, according to Reuters oil flow data.
China is not expected to halt shipments from Tehran when US sanctions kick in later this year.
"Japan and South Korea had an exemption from the previous round of sanctions by the US and the EU earlier this decade," Daisuke Hirota, principal deputy director at METI’s oil and gas division, told S&P Global Platts, adding that the two states are making concerted efforts to get the exemption from the US again to keep imports from Iran.
The four Asian oil importers bought in June a total of 1.45 million bpd from Iran, down by 0.5% compared to last year's corresponding period.
Iran oil and condensate exports reached 2.6 million barrels per day in June, higher than its average volumes over the past year.
In July, crude oil exports reached 2.28 million bpd, while condensate—an ultra light oil—volumes hit 330,000 bpd, up 10% compared with that of the month before, Shana reported.
Mohammad Baqer Nobakht, the government's spokesman, recently announced that the country's oil revenues during the first quarter of the current fiscal observed a 59.8% increase compared with the corresponding period of last year.
This, however, could be due to a surge in oil prices. Iran's crude price in the current fiscal has averaged $66 per barrel.
According to India’s Ministry of Petroleum, Indian refineries imported 48% more Iranian crude in June this year as compared to imports from June 2017.
"Indian refineries imported 1.9 million tons of crude oil from Iran in June 2017 and placed an order for 2.82 million tons in June 2018," India's Oil Minister Dharmendra Pradhan said in parliament on Monday.
