TEHRAN - South Korea imported 4,054 tons of crude oil from Iran in August, almost double compared to July’s figure of 2,068 tons, data from state-run Korea National Oil Corp showed on Tuesday.

Iran was the fifth biggest supplier of crude oil to South Korea in August, next to Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, the United Arab Emirates, and Qatar.

However, imports fell 2.7 percent in August from a year earlier.

Iran aims to be as competitive as possible to win back oil sales to South Korea if sanctions on Tehran are lifted, Iran’s ambassador to the Asian nation said in May. 

“We want to increase the volume of exports,” Iranian ambassador Hassan Taherian said. 

“That is the reason that as much as possible we will do our best to be competitive, and as much as possible to have a share of market here in South Korea,” the ambassador added. 

Meanwhile, South Korea was the 13th leading importer of Iranian non-oil goods in the previous Iranian calendar year, which ended on March 20, 2015, according to the Iran Customs Administration.      

Iran exported $429.61 million of non-oil goods to South Korea and imported $4.309 billion of non-oil goods from the country.