TOKYO (Dispatches) - Tokyo has resumed purchases of Iranian oil for the first time since suspending imports in line with U.S. sanctions against the Islamic Republic, according to reports citing a Japanese refinery and the head of Iranian Central Bank.
Japan, one of Iran’s largest oil importers, stopped buying Iranian crude more than a month before Washington unleashed its latest sanctions against Iran in November, targeting the country’s oil sector. Tokyo was later granted a temporary waiver from the U.S. embargo, but it took the Asian country around three months to finally resume purchases.
Japanese refiner Fuji Oil Co said its very large crude carrier (VLCC) ‘Kisogawa’ loaded a cargo of Iranian crude oil, Reuters reported, citing a company spokesman. Around two million barrels of Iranian oil on board the tanker is expected to reach Japan on February 9. Fuji Oil owns around a million barrels of the imported crude, while the rest of the shipment belongs to another major Japanese energy company, Showa Shell Sekiyu.
"It took a while for us to resume imports of Iranian oil,” the Fuji spokesman was as saying by Reuters. He added that the biggest challenge was to get banks’ agreement to process payments to Iran.
Showa Shell reportedly refused to elaborate on the purchases, saying that the company would consider resuming crude imports from Tehran if all conditions are met.
"After China, South Korea, India and Turkey, Japan also started the process of importing Iranian oil,” Governor of the Central Bank of Iran Abdolnaser Hemmati was as saying by the state news agency IRNA.