Seoul expecting oil from Iran next month

• Tweet

SEOUL, Aug. 21 (UPI) -- South Korea should expect its next delivery of Iranian crude oil by insured cargo in September, a South Korean official said.

South Korean officials this month suggested in an interview with the Platts news service that crude oil deliveries from Iran could begin in September. Iran's semiofficial Fars News Agency quotes an official said to be close to the South Korean Economic Ministry as confirming the expected delivery.

"The imports will resume from early September loading, meaning late September arrival," the source said on condition of anonymity. "The oil will be loaded in Iran to be shipped by Iranian tankers under Iranian insurance cover."

Sanctions imposed by the European Union target maritime insurance for Iranian crude oil.

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in June included South Korea in a list of countries she said reduced the amount of crude oil purchased from Iran.

South Korea in June imported 24 percent less crude oil from Iran than it did during the same month last year. There was no mention in the Fars report of an expected volume of the September delivery.

South Korea is the No. 5 oil importer in the world.