OREANDA-NEWS. October 06, 2014. Chinese imports of crude from Iran fell nearly 30 percent from a year earlier to the lowest since October 2013, with Tehran's largest oil client reducing shipments from high levels in recent months as at least one regular buyer went through a planned overhaul.

China began stepping up purchases from the OPEC member after a preliminary nuclear deal in November last year eased some sanctions on Iran. China has since accounted for the main portion of Asia's higher Iranian oil imports.

Iran and world powers remain far apart in a dispute over Tehran's nuclear programme, and they face a "difficult road" to reach a deal by a late November deadline, a senior Iranian negotiator said earlier this month.

Six world powers, including China and Russia, last week began their first full negotiating round with Iran since July in New York.

China's August imports from Iran came in at 1.32 million tonnes, or 311,653 bpd, down 28.6 percent from a year earlier, customs data showed.

On a daily basis, August imports fell 44.2 percent from July's 558,865 bpd.
"Nothing political behind that, it's due to technical reasons like maintenances at some Chinese plants," said a trading executive with direct knowledge of the trade flow.

"If you look at the year-to-date figures they are still in line with contractual volumes."

Imports from Iran in the January-August period this year stood at 19.3 million tonnes, or 578,630 bpd, up 37 percent from a year earlier, the data showed.

A senior source at Dragon Aromatics, an independent petrochemical producer and regular buyer of Iranian South Pars condensate, said the firm had shut down refining for three weeks for maintenance from mid-August.

China's imports from Iran spiked to a record in April and remained high in May. Oil major Sinopec has been lifting more Iranian crude since last year, partly because it is cheaper versus similar grades from Saudi Arabia, industry officials have told Reuters.

Iran ranks No.5 among China's top suppliers, according to Chinese customs. Growth in the January-August period was the fastest among China's top suppliers, outpacing Iraq, Oman, Angola, Russia and Saudi Arabia.

Overall, China imported 5.93 million bpd of crude in August, up 17.5 percent from the year before, customs data has shown.