Taiwan's Iranian crude oil imports would be capped at 5.99 million barrels in 2018, down 40% from the 9.95 million barrels in 2017 due to the snapback of US sanctions on Iran. Taiwan received 1.99 million barrels, or 66,381 b/d of Iranian crude oil in September -- its third cargo so far this year, data released by the Bureau of Energy under the Ministry of Economic Affairs late Thursday showed.
This is likely to the be final cargo from Iran to Taiwan in 2018.
In contrast, five VLCCs of Iranian crude were imported last year, totaling 9.95 million barrels, data from the bureau showed.
The September cargo was loaded onboard the Herby and delivered to Mailiao on September 17, where privately owned Formosa Petrochemical Corp.'s refinery and petrochemical complex is located, S&P Global Platts trade flow software cFlow showed.
Platts cFlow showed that no Iranian crude cargo would be delivered into Taiwan in October or November as international buyers of Iranian oil have until November 4 to wind down contracts before the US re-imposes sanctions on the oil, shipping and insurance sectors.
The sanctions went back into effect on November 5, although top buyers of Iranian crude, including Taiwan, were given temporary waivers until May, when they will be expected to cut their purchases significantly.
Given the temporary waiver came into effect earlier this month, the earliest cargoes Taiwanese refiners would be able to buy would be January 2019 loading barrels from Iran that would be delivered to Taiwan in February, based on the trading cycle for Iranian crude oil and voyage time.
This implies no more Iranian cargoes will land in Taiwan for the rest of 2018.
The US has given temporary waivers to China, India and Turkey -- Iran's top buyers -- as well as Japan, South Korea, Italy, Greece and Taiwan. However, the US is maintaining its goal of eventually reducing Iranian crude exports to zero.
US FLOW However, rising crude imports from US would likely continue. In addition to spot buying, Taiwan's state-owned CPC Corp. has secured its first US crude term supplies from Kolmar for 2019. Under the term contract, the company will take 2 million barrels/month of WTI Midland for half a year.
Buoyed by the increase from the US, imports from sources listed as "others" nearly tripled year on year to 191,125 b/d in September, but fell 14.3% from the all-time high of 223,144 b/d in August, the bureau's data showed.
The bureau lists 11 of the island's typical suppliers in its data, and puts the remainder in the "others" category, which includes the US. Average shipments under the "others" category in the first nine months of the year was 121,437 b/d.
The 11 typical suppliers are Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Oman, Iraq, the UAE, Angola, Indonesia, Azerbaijan, Iran, Qatar and Ghana.
Platts cFlow showed two cargoes, totaling more than 2 million barrels, from the US was delivered to Taiwan in September.
Taiwan's total crude oil imports in September rose 3.3% year on year to 947,106 b/d, the data showed.
Over January-September, the island's crude imports rose 2.5% year on year to 892,113 b/d.
