Key Gulf exporters Saudi Arabia and Iraq are feeling the heat from an inflow of cut-price Russian crude in their core markets of India and China (MEES, 16 September). But it’s the reverse picture in Asia’s key Western allies South Korea and Japan.
Freshly-released official Korean import stats for August show imports of Russian crude falling to zero for the first time since April 2005. As recently as January – the month before Russia’s invasion of Ukraine – Korea imported 227,000 b/d of Russian crude. (CONTINUED - 188 WORDS)