U.S. Imports of Iranian Oil Fell Sharply in Aug.

U.S. imports of Iranian crude oil, which rose to their highest monthly level of the decade in July, fell sharply in August but remained above their recent average, the Commerce Department said.

Shipments of Iranian oil to the United States fell to 353,388 barrels per day in August from 633,089 barrels per day in July, according to the department’s monthly trade report.

Many lawmakers were outraged after learning that Iran was the United States’s second largest supplier of foreign crude oil in July, accounting for more than 11% of the total.

Voted Overwhelmingly

Congress has since voted overwhelmingly to sever all trade with Iran, but the legislation has yet to reach President Reagan’s desk. White House officials have said they sympathize with its intent but doubt it could be enforced. They have not said whether Reagan will sign the bill or veto it.

Oil analysts blamed the July rise on temporary conditions that made it especially profitable to buy Iranian oil, which was plentiful at the time, and sell it in the United States, where there was a brief squeeze on domestic supplies.

They said the August decline was expected and doubted there would be further sharp increases, even if the ban on Iranian trade is not enacted.

Following recent clashes in the Persian Gulf between U.S. and Iranian forces the negative publicity for oil companies that buy from Iran will also discourage further purchases, oil analyst Phillip Verleger said.

“Given the publicity, I think it’s all over,” said Verleger, a visiting fellow at the Institute for International Economics, a Washington research group.

The Commerce Department’s latest report issued Wednesday showed Iran supplied 6.1% of the 5.8 million barrels per day of oil imported by U.S. refiners in August, making it the country’s sixth largest supplier that month.

So far this year, Iran has been the country’s eighth largest supplier, with 247,325 barrels per day at a total price of more than $1 billion, according to Commerce Department statistics.

John Roberts, a senior adviser to the Middle East Institute, a Washington-based research group, said that despite the August decline, Iranian oil imports still average nearly 400,000 barrels per day in the four months ended in August, compared the 93,000 barrels a day imported in 1986.