South Korea’s crude imports in March dropped 2.1% year-on-year, dragged down by weak demand amid the coronavirus pandemic.
The world’s fifth-largest crude importer purchased 11.30 million tonnes of crude oil in March, equivalent to 2.67 million bpd. Crude imports a year earlier amounted to 11.54 million bpd.
South Korea’s decline in imports came after oil demand fell due to the coronavirus crisis. The country’s top refiner SK Energy lessened its crude run rates by 10% to 15% in March.
Crude imports from Saudi Arabia soared 27.3% year-on-year to 3.40 million tonnes, or 804,304 bpd in March.
U.S. crude imports were up 60.5% year-on-year to 1.68 million tonnes, or 397,951 bpd in March.
South Korea increased crude imports from the United States after the sanction waivers ended in May 2019, which allowed South Korea to purchase Iranian oil.
In the months of January to March 2020, U.S. crude imports were up 31.4% a year earlier to 4.99 million tonnes.
However, crude imports from other suppliers fell. Iraqi crude imports were down 43.1% to 993,345 tonnes and Kuwait imports dropped 15.8% to 1.38 million tonnes.
South Korea’s final crude oil imports data will be released by Korea National Oil Corp later this month.