Official South African statistics from its Revenue Service show that the country imported 467,000 tons of Iranian oil last October, with the volume dropping each successive month to zero in January. But in February, imports surged to 417,000 tons.
The erratic purchases disprove the claims of some that refiners can’t easily shift their oil sources and are locked into a particular supplier unless they spend much money and time to adjust their refining equipment.
The figures for March are not yet available, but Engen, the country’s largest crude importer, announced that it had halted all imports from Iran in March. A spokeswoman said Engen had on average bought 80 percent of its crude supplies, or about 100,000 barrels a day, from Iran but has now lined up alternative suppliers.
The only other known buyer of Iranian oil in the country, Sasol, took 12,000 barrels a day from Iran in February but said it also stopped all purchases of Iranian crude in March.
There are other refiners in South Africa, such as BP, Chevron and Shell, but they do not use Iranian crude.