South Korea’s Iranian crude oil imports dropped 46.9% year on year to 420,402 mt or 99,355 b/d in October, from 791,581 mt in October 2012, customs data showed Friday.

The October imports from Iran fell 26.5% from 571,909 mt in September. South Korea imported a total of 10.66 million mt or 2.52 million b/d of crude oil in October, down 3.9% year on year from 11.096 million mt. The October imports rose 6.8% from September’s 9.981 million mt.

State-run Korea National Oil Corp. will release final oil import data later this month.

In June, the US renewed South Korea’s 180-day waiver from sanctions against Tehran, after determining the country and other key importers in Asia had made significant cuts in purchases of Iranian oil.

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