As some refiners conducted maintenance amid a demand slowdown, customs data showed South Korea’s crude oil imports from the US sank in May to their lowest since November 2018.
South Korea’s crude imports from the US in May were 956,686 tonnes. That was down 33.2 percent from 1.43 million tonnes in 2019. After Saudi Arabia and Kuwait, the US ranked as South Korea’s No.3 crude supplier last month.
South Korea has sharply increased US crude imports in May 2019 following the end of US sanctions waivers that had allowed South Korea to buy Iranian crude oil. Since then, the country has not imported Iranian crude oil and has replaced it with US light crudes.
From 3.39 million tonnes a year earlier, South Korea’s crude imports from Saudi Arabia were 3.92 million tonnes in May, up 15.5 percent. From 11.27 million tonnes in the same month in 2019, South Korea’s May crude imports totalled 10.57 million tonnes of crude oil, down 6.2 percent. South Korea imported 56.91 million tonnes of crude oil in the first five months of the year, down 7.0 percent from 61.17 million tonnes in the same period of 2019.
