Figures show that Saudi Arabia has lost a significant share of South Korea’s oil market to Iran, Press TV reported. According to Oil Price, South Korea doubled its imports of Iranian crude in January, when Iran returned on the international oil market and started exporting growing amounts of oil in a bid to regain market share lost to the now-lifted international sanctions.

Preliminary customs data show that Iran exported around 1.79m tons of crude oil to the Asian country. The figure – which is equal to around 425,000b/d– is almost twice as high as that of the same period in 2016.

This development takes market share away from Iran’s key rival, Saudi Arabia, whose exports to South Korea dropped by 17.3% in January compared to December 2016, as the Saudis are complying with a supply-cut deal agreed by the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC).

South Korea’s total crude oil imports from all oil-exporting nations increased by 14% annually to 2.93mb/d in January.