South Korea’s top refiner SK Energy’s main factory is seen in Ulsan, about 410 km (256 miles) southeast of Seoul, February 25, 2009. South Korea’s crude oil imports from Iran dropped 19.7 percent in June from a year earlier, and its shipments from the OPEC country in the first half of this year also declined 5.5 percent year-on-year, meeting international sanction requirements. Iran and six major world powers on Tuesday reached a nuclear deal under which the sanctions imposed by the United States, European Union and United Nations are set to be lifted in exchange for curbs on Iran’s nuclear program. “More oil from Iran will help already oversupplied crude markets become more favorable to buyers … from a long-term perspective, it is likely to help improve refining margins,” said a Seoul-based source at one of the two South Korean refiners that import Iranian crude. Of four refiners in […]