Italy, which depends heavily on energy imports because of scarce natural resources, boosted crude imports from Saudi Arabia to 807,370 tons in June from 563,900 tons in May, the data posted on UP’s site, showed.
Imports from Saudi Arabia accounted for 11.9 percent of Italy’s total oil imports in the first six months of 2011 which rose 1.3 percent year on year to 35.09 million tons.
Italy also increased crude imports from Iraq, Nigeria and Syria in June, while imports from Azerbaijan, No.1 supplier with a 18.4 percent share of total imports to Italy, and from No. 2 Russia fell, UP said without explaining the data.
Italy stopped importing crude oil from Libya in April due to the conflict there.
However, Libya remained Italy’s fifth-biggest supplier, accounting for 10.8 percent of total crude imports in the first six months of 2011, after Azerbaijan, Russia, Iran and Saudi Arabia, the data showed.
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 six months of 2010.
In the first five months of 2011, imports of semi-finished oil products from Libya to Italy dropped 34.7 percent year-on-year to 130,000 tons, while total imports of such products to Italy fell 14.9 percent to 2.51 million tons.
Italy’s refining output fell 4.0 percent year-on-year in the first six months of this year to 42.4 million tons. Some 80 percent of the total refining capacity was used during the six month in an industry which has an annual capacity of 106.6 million tons, UP said.
