The success of Saudi Arabia, Iran and Iraq in pushing bumper volumes of competitively-priced crude on their key Asian customers is evidenced in the latest import statistics. These show that for three of their key customers – India, Japan and South Korea – diversification away from Gulf crude in recent years has gone into reverse since the start of 2016.
For Japan and South Korea, imports from the Gulf rose above 85% of their total in the second quarter this year; for India the total hit 65% in Q2 having fallen below 60% in 2014 (see chart, and MEES, 2 September for full Indian import data). (CONTINUED - 1066 WORDS)
