Thailand's crude and condensate imports in July rose 4.7% from a year earlier to an average 666,591 b/d, including rare volumes from Colombia and Pakistan, according to data from the country's customs department released Thursday, August 28.
Total crude imports for the month were up 5.5% year on year at 632,710 b/d, although condensate inflows slid 7.5% year on year to 33,881 b/d.
The United Arab Emirates remained Thailand's largest supplier of crude oil last month, even though shipments plunged 36.1% year on year and 29.5% month on month to 144,946 b/d.
Saudi Arabia was in second place with 125,897 b/d, which was an 18.5% increase from July 2013, although the volume fell 17.3% from June this year.
Australian crude imports were up 285.4% year on year in July to 82,467 b/d while cargoes from Russia and Qatar both nearly doubled from a year ago to 93,605 b/d and 72,506 b/d, respectively.
Thailand also received 7,819 b/d of crude from Colombia last month -- the first import from the Latin American country since March 2011.
Star Petroleum Refining Public Co. bought a partial cargo of Colombia's Castilla Blend crude for delivery in July, trade sources said Thursday.
The company, a joint venture between state-owned PTT and Chevron, has a 155,000 b/d refinery in Map Ta Phut.
PTT also purchased another partial cargo of Castilla earlier this month for mid-September delivery, Platts reported previously.
The move comes as grades from Latin America and Africa have become more competitive against Middle Eastern grades due to the narrowing spread between Brent and Dubai crude benchmarks in recent months.
Thailand's condensate imports in July primarily came from Indonesia, with volumes averaging 27,030 b/d, compared with none in July 2013 and 12,396 b/d in June this year.
Thailand also imported 6,827 b/d of condensate from Pakistan in July.
This is the first time that it has brought in any crude or condensate from Pakistan since June 2005.
Over January-July, Thailand's total crude and condensate imports fell 11.3% year on year to 805,666 b/d, with crude volumes down 11.6% year on year to 767,357 b/d, while condensate inflows declined 3.7% to 38,309 b/d, the data also showed.
Crude imports from the UAE were down 33% from the same period last year to 251,954 b/d, while Saudi cargoes slipped 4.1% year on year to 151,363 b/d.
There were notable increases in crude shipments however, from Qatar, Russia, Australia and Nigeria.
In the first half of the year, Thailand produced 232,735 b/d of crude from its domestic fields, while exports were 12,424 b/d.
In the downstream sector, throughput at the country's refineries totaled 1.02 million b/d, according to data from the country's Energy Policy and Planning Office at the Ministry of Energy.
