Italy imported 572,000 tons of crude oil from Libya in March, down from 1.485 million tons in February and 1.732 million tons in January, data from Italy’s industry group Unione Petrolifera (UP) showed. (www.unionepetrolifera.it).
Libya still remained Italy’s biggest supplier of crude oil, accounting for 21 percent of total crude imports into Italy in the first three months of 2011, ahead of Azerbaijan with 16.2 percent and Russia with 14.6 percent, the data showed.
The UN, the US and the European Union have all imposed sanctions on Libya, which between them affect dozens of firms and individuals linked to Qaddafi.
Italy, which depends heavily on energy imports because of scarce natural resources, increased imports of crude oil from Iran, another sanctions-hit supplier, to 828,400 tons in March from 225,300 tons in February and 383,900 tons in January.
Imports from Iran accounted for 8 percent of its total oil imports in the first quarter of 2011, which rose 4.7 percent from a year ago to 18.06 million tons.
The tightening of international sanctions against Iran, which took full effect around July 2010, has complicated deals involving buying Iranian crude or selling refined oil products to the Islamic Republic. Tehran denies the West’s charge that it is seeking to build nuclear weapons.
The UP did not give a country-by-country comparison with the first three months of 2010.
Italy’s refining output rose 2.6 percent year-on-year in the first two months of this year, when 82 percent of the total refining capacity of 106.6 million tons was used, UP said.
