There's a "high chance" that South Korea will resume importing Iranian
crude oil in the near future, Minister of Knowledge Economy Hong Sukwoo
said Thursday.
He didn't elaborate on the terms or the scale of possible
future crude-oil imports from Iran.
Issues relating to Iranian crude imports "will be resolved
well without any big problems," and South Korean companies will be able
to export as much as they want to Iran,
Mr. Hong told reporters, without elaborating.
South Korea's imports of Iranian crude were suspended at the
beginning of July, after European Union sanctions targeting Iran's
oil exports came into effect. The sanctions effectively cut off
insurance on shipments of Iranian crude.
However, Iranian officials have since offered accident
insurance coverage worth a maximum of $1 billion on Iranian tankers
shipping crude oil to South Korea, a Hyundai Oilbank official said
earlier this month.
Hyundai Oilbank and SK Energy, the two South Korean refiners
that imported Iranian crude, are considering Iran's
offer to provide shipping services, officials from both companies have
said.
South Korea's June imports of Iranian crude fell 24.4% from
the same month a year earlier to 5.294 million barrels. January-June
imports declined 17.1% on year to 34.510 million barrels, preliminary
data from state-run Korea National Oil Corp. showed Monday.
South Korea usually imports around 10% of its crude-oil
requirements from Iran,
but that percentage declined to 7.4% in the first six months of this
year.
Some South Korean media reports in recent months have cited
executives from small and medium-sized companies expressing concern
about receiving payment for exports to Iran
should crude-oil imports remain suspended for a prolonged period of
time.
South Korea posted a $5.29 billion trade deficit with Iran
last year, government data showed. Exports to Iran
totaled $6.07 billion, around 1.1% of the nation's total exports.