Taiwan's crude oil imports in June fell 8.6% year on year to 21.61 million barrels or 720,367 b/d, according to latest data from the Ministry of Economic Affairs' Bureau of Energy.
Refiners continued to skip imports from Iran, while volumes from Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and Angola all dropped significantly, the data released last week showed.
Total crude oil imports in June were also down almost 20% from 26.98 million barrels in May.
This was the third consecutive month that refiners did not import any Iranian crude. Following US plans to slap sanctions on countries that continue oil trade with Iran, Taiwan pledged to cut its Iranian purchases and was granted a sanctions waiver by Washington in mid-June.
Refiners also did not import any volumes from Iraq in June, following a record 3.91 million barrels in May.
In the first half of the year, Taiwan's crude imports totaled 151.66 million barrels, up 2.4% year on year. Iranian imports totaled 4.92 million barrels, down from 4.97 million barrels in H1 2011.
Saudi volumes in the first half fell 9% year on year to 46.26 million barrels, while Angolan imports fell nearly 25% over the same period to 21.74 million barrels. Kuwaiti cargoes were flat from a year earlier at 34.42 million barrels.
Downstream, refinery runs in June fell 7.5% year on year to 3.95 million kiloliters (827,642 b/d), and were largely flat from May.
Refiners' crude distillation utilization rate was 65.69% in June, up from 63.38% in May, the energy bureau said.
Crude runs in the first half totaled 24.6 million kl (850,121 b/d), edging up 0.5% from H1 2011.
Taiwan has two oil refiners, one privately held and one state-owned.
Formosa Petrochemical owns a 540,000 b/d refinery at Mailiao, while state-owned CPC operates three refineries -- the 200,000 b/d Taoyuan in northern Taiwan and the 300,000 b/d Talin and 200,000 b/d Zuoying, both in the southern city of Kaohsiung.
TAIWAN'S JUNE 2012 CRUDE OUTPUT, THROUGHPUT AND IMPORTS
June 2012 June 2011 % change May 2012 % change Crude output 847 714 18.63 748 13.24 Crude throughput 3,947,546 4,267,370 -7.49 3,936,062 0.29 Unit: kiloliters
Crude import sources June 2012 June 2011 % change May 2012 % change Saudi Arabia 6,467 8,323 -22.30 7,696 -15.97 Kuwait 5,004 5,841 -14.33 5,403 -7.38 Angola 3,749 4,779 -21.55 4,820 -22.22 Oman 2,948 0 - 2,001 47.33 UAE 1,460 1,114 31.06 2,391 -38.94 Others 1,983 3,599 -44.90 4,669 -57.53 Total 21,611 23,656 -8.64 26,980 -19.90 Unit: '000 barrels Source: Bureau of Energy, Taiwan's Ministry of Economic Affairs
