JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) – Petronas’ South African unit Engen said on Wednesday it had halted all imports of crude
from Iran after deciding the sanctions placed on the Middle Eastern country were a risk to its security of
supply.
Refinery, November 13, 2008. REUTERS/Rogan Ward
“We have been working on diverting our supply since
identifying Iran as a risk,” said Engen spokeswoman Tania Landsberg.
Engen, the biggest South African buyer of Iranian
crude, is majority-owned by Malaysian national oil company Petronas.
While Landsberg would not comment on when Engen
stopped imports, a Petronas source told Reuters last month Engen had stopped buying Iranian oil from March.
South
Africa has come under Western pressure to cut Iranian crude imports as part of sanctions designed to halt Tehran’s suspected
pursuit of nuclear weapons.
Last month South African petrochemicals group Sasol said it had found alternative supplies
of crude oil to replace product coming from Iran.
Sasol said in January its oil unit was procuring 12,000 barrels per
day, or 20 percent of the crude required by its Natref refinery, from Iran.
While March customs data is not yet
available, South African crude oil imports from Iran leapt in February to $364 million, from zero the preceding
month.
The Revenue Service said Africa’s biggest economy imported 417,000 tonnes of Iranian crude in February, a
dramatic reversal of a declining trend seen since October, when it imported 467,000 tonnes.