Total exports in September at 1.02 mbpd, lowest since March
Iran's September oil exports head for 6-month low
TOKYO, September 7, 2015
Iran's oil sales look to be headed towards a six-month low in September, down 16 per cent from August, with tanker loading data showing Tehran is struggling to boost crude exports despite optimism over the landmark deal on its nuclear programme.
The Opec producer has been getting lukewarm responses from Asian buyers to offers of discounts in return for increased purchases as it tries to regain market share lost to rivals such as Saudi Arabia over the last 3-1/2 years of Western sanctions.
August and September loadings - for arrivals in September and October - suggest imports by its main buyers in Asia are set to fall a second straight month in September, due to a seasonal drop in demand at the end of summer and as China takes its lowest volume of Iranian crude in nearly a year.
That goes counter to expectations that Iran's exports would start to edge higher after Tehran and six world powers reached their nuclear agreement on July 14, even though the sanctions likely will not be officially relaxed until sometime next year.
Those measures - which finally brought Iran to the table to discuss curbs to its nuclear work - cut its exports by more than half and cost it billions a month in lost petrodollars.
Iran's total crude and condensate exports will fall to 1.02 million barrels per day (bpd) in September, the lowest since March, when India and Japan did not load oil from the Opec member to hold shipments within sanction limits, according to a source who tracks tanker loadings.
Top buyer China looks to be taking the biggest whack out of its purchases, lifting only 348,000 bpd this month - down from 523,000 bpd in August - and rivalling the nearly 340,000 bpd that arrived from Iran in October 2014.
On a percentage basis, fourth-biggest buyer South Korea is reducing its September loadings from Iran by more than 50 percent to 81,000 bpd from 175,000 bpd the previous month.
Those cuts and a 22 percent reduction by Japan will help to reduce Asia's loadings of Iranian crude and condensate in September to 808,000 bpd, down from 1.03 million bpd in August, the source said.
Other buyers, including India, Turkey and the United Arab Emirates, are raising their purchases in September over August, countering somewhat the cuts by China, Japan and South Korea.
Separately, about 3 million barrels are headed for Iran's offshore storage in both September and August. Iran has been forced to store crude on tankers in the Gulf and cut production to less than 3 million bpd over the course of the sanctions. --Reuters
