SINGAPORE (Reuters) -- Iran's crude oil exports to North Asia surged by 31 percent in the last quarter, driven by China and outstripping increases from other major Middle Eastern producers after OPEC raised output from November.

Quarterly exports from Iran rose 325,000 barrels per day (bpd), taking its annual total to the region to 1.255 million bpd, up 10 percent on-year, despite OPEC supply curbs for most of 2007 and fears Western sanctions over Tehran's nuclear work could hit sales.
Oil sales from Saudi Arabia, Iran and Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates to North Asia rose 346,000 bpd in the quarter to 6.38 million bpd, data from Japan, Taiwan, South Korea, and China show, indicating that OPEC targeted Asia when it raised output by 500,000 bpd.
Saudi Arabia restored exports to Asia to full contracted volumes from November onwards, up a tenth from the previous months, leading to a 130,000-bpd increase to North Asia, or up 5 percent from the third quarter. Even so, Saudi crude exports to North Asia were down 4.4 percent last year from 2006, indicating that Saudi Aramco applied OPEC cuts to Asia, while Iran did not.
OPEC was exercising a 1.2 million-bpd supply cut in January 2007, which was deepened to 1.7 million bpd from February until end-October, against no reductions in 2006.
The cartel agreed to bump up daily output by half a million barrels from Nov. 1, in a bid to soothe surging prices which were hovering near $80 a barrel last September. Traders with refiners were struggling to explain the surge in purchases of Iranian crude for the fourth quarter.
But it might have come after Asian buyers deferred liftings slated for earlier in 2007 on fears of economic sanctions, and ramped up imports by year-end to honor their term contracts.
""This is interesting but I do not know the reason. Their price formula is always close to the Saudi formula so the price was not a big factor,"" a trader with a lifter said.
Exports from the United Arab Emirates fell 9 percent over the fourth quarter, or 130,000 bpd, following major field maintenance in November that cut output for that month by up to 600,000 bpd.
---------------------------------- China leads
China, which imports about half its crude needs, led the rise in imports of Iranian crude, with a 22.4 percent jump to 410,000 bpd, making Iran its third-largest supplier after Saudi Arabia and Angola.
South Korea's 2007 imports of Iranian crude rose 15 percent, while Japan's edged up 3.5 percent, shrugging off initial fears of sanctions that had prompted top refiner Nippon Oil Corp to cut imports from Iran by 15 percent in 2006.
Only Taiwan kept Iranian oil imports largely steady around 110,000 bpd. Imports of Iranian crude by China are expected to rise to around 500,000 bpd this year, after its top refiner Sinopec signed up for an extra 100,000 bpd for 2008 from the world's fourth-largest exporter.
The world's second-largest oil consumer has in recent years expanded commercial ties with Iran, as it seeks to secure oil for its growing economy and to fill strategic reserves, distancing itself from the United States-led drive to isolate the Islamic Republic over its atomic plans. Overall Chinese imports rose 12.3 percent last year, though the fourth-quarter intake fell 8 percent against the third, as refiners tried to limit crude runs due to surging global prices while domestic rates failed to keep pace.
Still, traders expected a similar overall rise this year with the start-up of new refineries, as the country continues to pull its weight on the international oil market that has topped $100 a barrel again this week to new records.
Total crude imports into North Asia last year were up a modest 2.2 percent, mainly supported by the jump in Chinese imports, while inflows into the more mature economies of Japan, South Korea and Taiwan fell.
But crude imports into Japan have recently rebounded, up for four months in a row, to stand at 4.12 million bpd for January, latest data showed.
Japan's crude imports rose a healthy 7 percent in the last quarter, versus the third quarter and from a year ago, possibly because utilities boosted use of direct-burning crude to compensate for the closure of its largest nuclear facility, the Kashiwazaki-Kariwa plant, since last July.