Iran’s condensate exports up 85 percent, oil ministry website says

Iran’s gas condensate exports rose to more than $6.5 billion in the six months to Sept. 21, up 85 percent from the same period of last year, oil ministry news website Shana said on Wednesday.

Iranian crude oil sales have fallen by more than half from 2011 levels to around 1 million barrels a day (bpd) as a result of EU and U.S. sanctions.

But looser controls on sales of the light oil pumped out of the world’s largest gas field, South Pars, have led to a surge in Iran’s condensate exports.

The United States has the option to impose sanctions on buyers of Iranian natural gas condensate, which is used as a feedstock for making gasoline and petrochemicals, but only if sufficient alternative supply is available.

Iran’s export volumes jumped to 9.23 million tons of gas condensate in the first half of the Iranian year, which started on March 21, the official news agency IRNA reported citing customs data.

China, Iraq, the United Arab Emirates, Afghanistan and India were the main markets for the oil, Shana and IRNA said.

Iran’s oil exports slipped to 1.31 million bpd in July from 1.42 million bpd in June, according to data published by the Joint Organizations Data Initiative (JODI).

Crude exports were supposed to be held just above 1 million bpd, a level set by the West under an interim deal aimed at curbing Iran’s disputed nuclear program.

Shipments higher than that have not drawn serious criticism from Washington, partly because U.S. officials say the increased volumes are made up of condensate as well as of Iranian gifts of oil to Syria, which they do not view as sales.