By Dalga Khatinoglu
Iran's gas condensate export experienced a huge increase last month, but the overall export volume decreased by 20 percent during first two months of Iran's fiscal year.
Iran's fiscal year starts on March 20.
The country exported about 4.913 million metric tons of the gas condensate during last month, or more than 1.331 million barrels per day (mb/d) during a period from April 21 to May 22.
This is the highest level in Iran's gas condensate export in history.
Exporting above 1.3 mb/d of ultra-light oil during last month was reported while according to Reuters estimations, Iran has exported below 1.2 million barrels of oil to Asian countries in April. Iran also exports less than 0.1 mb/d of oil to Turkey.
The following tables, reported by Reuters on May 29 show Asia's Iran crude imports in bpd for April and the year to date:
|
Country |
Apr-15 |
Apr-14 |
yr/yr pct |
|
China |
707,400 |
799,865 |
-11.6 |
|
India |
264,100 |
224,800 |
17.5 |
|
Japan |
68,275 |
56,934 |
19.9 |
|
S. Korea |
126,033 |
133,433 |
-5.5 |
|
Total |
1,165,808 |
1,215,032 |
-4.1 |
It's not clear why Iran's total oil export is estimated less than the country's custom statistics, which consists of only the gas condensate export, but there are three options:
- Iran's real oil export is much more than what its clients announce officially.
- Iran's exported condensate was stored in China, not sold there. (In August 2014 Iran announced that it stored about 5 million barrels in Chinese storage facilities. Iran transferred condensate there to be sold in future).
- Iran increased oil export in May 1 to May 22 significantly.
The following figures have been extracted from Iranian Custom Administration's monthly reports since October 2013:
|
Year |
Condensate export |
Volume Kilo metric tons |
Value |
Kilo barrels per day |
|
2013 |
Oct 23 to Nov 22 |
1,149 |
$1.018B |
311.34 |
|
Nov 23 to Dec 22 |
1,690 |
$1.419B |
457.94 |
|
|
Dec 23 to Jan 21 |
3,599 |
$2.157B |
975.21 |
|
|
2014 |
Jan 22 to Feb 20 |
1,095 |
$959M |
296.71 |
|
Feb 21 to Mar 20 |
897 |
$816M |
243.06 |
|
|
Mar 21 to Apr 20 |
846 |
$779M |
229.24 |
|
|
Apr 21 to May21 |
4,095 |
$2.251B |
1,109 |
|
|
May 22 to June 21 |
807 |
$761M |
218.67 |
|
|
June 22 to July 22 |
1,965 |
$1.388B |
532.45 |
|
|
July 23 to Aug 22 |
759 |
$678M |
205.66 |
|
|
Aug 23 to Sep 22 |
726 |
$657M |
196.72 |
|
|
Sep 23 to Oct 23 |
1,616 |
$1.027B |
452.48 |
|
|
Oct.23 to Nov.22 |
1,639 |
$1.188B |
458.92 |
|
|
Nov.23 to Dec.22 |
936 |
$847 M |
262.08 |
|
|
Dec.23 to Jan.21 |
3,078 |
$2.512 B |
861.84 |
|
|
2015 |
Jan 22 to Feb.21 |
1,719 |
$1.580B |
481.32 |
|
Feb 22 to Mar 20 |
938 |
$ 332 M |
271.1 |
|
|
Mar 20 to Apr 21 |
919 |
$523 M |
249 |
|
|
Apr 21 to May 22 |
4,913 |
$1.954 B |
1,331 |
Edited by CN
Dalga Khatinoglu is an expert on Iran's energy sector, head of Trend Agency's Iran news service
Follow him on @dalgakhatinoglu