South Korea’s imports of Iranian crude oil dropped 50 per cent in February from a year earlier, and the country’s oil shipments from the Opec country in the first two months of this year met international sanction requirements.

Seoul imported 557,174 tonnes of crude oil from Tehran last month, or 145,860 barrels per day (bpd), compared with 1.1 million tonnes a year ago, preliminary customs data from the world’s fifth-largest crude oil importer showed.

The world’s fifth-largest crude importer brought 830,800 tonnes or 103,216 bpd of crude from the Middle Eastern country in the first two months of this year, below last year’s average at 125,000 (bpd).

Iranian crude shipments in 2014 were 6.2 million tonnes, or 124,497 bpd, down 7.1 per cent from the 2013 average of 134,000 bpd, according to the data and Reuters calculations in January.

Major world powers have begun talks about a United Nations Security Council resolution to lift UN sanctions on Iran if a nuclear agreement is struck with Tehran, a step that could make it harder for the US Congress to undo a deal, Western officials said. Under current sanctions, big Asian buyers, including South Korea, should hold their crude imports from Tehran at end-2013 levels.