Taiwan's crude oil imports in July fell 10% year on year to 24.32 million barrels, or 784,484 b/d, according to data released Thursday from the Ministry of Economic Affairs' Bureau of Energy.
Refiners continued to skip imports from Iran, while volumes from Kuwait and Angola dropped by 10.1% and 5.2% respectively, the data showed.
However, top suppliers Saudi Arabia, Oman and the UAE all raised their export volumes to Taiwan.
July was the fourth 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 continued to stay away from Iraqi imports for the second month running, following a record import of 3.91 million barrels in May.
In the first seven months of the year, Taiwan's crude imports totaled 826,183 b/d -- flat from the 826,241 b/d seen in the same period last year.
Iranian imports for the period totaled 23,100 b/d, down nearly 56% year on year.
Saudi volumes from January to July fell 7.9% year on year to an average 257,469 b/d, while Angolan imports fell 23.4% over the same period to 115,150 b/d. Kuwaiti cargoes dipped 1.3% to 186,798 b/d.
Downstream, refinery runs in July rose 2.3% year on year to 4.34 million kiloliters (880,572 b/d), and were up 10% from June.
Refiners' crude distillation utilization rate was 69.95% in July, up from 65.69% in June, the energy bureau said.
Crude runs in the first seven months of the year totaled 28.94 million kl (854,664 b/d), edging up 0.7% from the same period last year.
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 JULY 2012 CRUDE OUTPUT, THROUGHPUT AND IMPORTS
July 2012 July 2011 % change June 2012 % change Crude output 727 711 2.3 847 -14.2 Crude throughput 4,343,786 4,244,355 2.3 3,947,546 10.0 Unit: kiloliters
Crude import sources July 2012 July 2011 % change June 2012 % change Saudi Arabia 8,581 8,341 2.9 6,467 32.7 Kuwait 5,367 5,967 -10.1 5,004 7.3 Angola 2,788 2,941 -5.2 3,749 -25.6 UAE 2,348 1,903 23.4 1,460 60.8 Oman 2,334 1,002 132.9 2,948 -20.8 Others 2,901 6,890 -57.9 1,983 46.3 Total 24,319 27,044 -10.1 21,611 12.5 Unit: '000 barrels Source: Bureau of Energy, Taiwan's Ministry of Economic Affairs
