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| Japan's July crude imports from Iran rise 38.3% |
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 Japan's crude oil imports from Iran in July rose 38.3 percent from a month earlier to 172,047 barrels per day, Japan’s Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI) data showed on Friday.
Japan's imports from the OPEC nation rose for a third straight month on a year-on-year basis last month to offset steep cuts made in April due to uncertainties over the sovereign insurance on tankers carrying Iranian oil.
Officials said that Japan's crude oil imports from Iran jumped 61% in July from a year earlier despite ongoing U.S. led sanctions, the overall downward trend has not changed.
According to a Japan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs official, the exaggerated jump in the current reporting period is due to the comparatively low figure for imports from Tehran in July 2012. In the year-earlier period only a limited number of tankers were in operation following a sanctions-related ban on reinsurance for vessels carrying Iranian oil.
The official said that "In July last year, the European Union's ban on providing reinsurance for tankers carrying Iranian crude oil kicked in, and shipments were essentially frozen for a while. The trend of reducing oil imports from Iran will continue."
In June, Washington granted its third 180-day waiver on sanctions applied to Asian countries, including India, China and South Korea, for significantly reducing Iranian oil imports in the six months through May.
Japan won its third six-month waiver in March as part of a different review process. Japan's renewal will come up in September, while the waivers for the other Asian buyers will come up in November-December.
For the month of June, China, India, Japan and South Korea together imported 790,054 bpd of Iranian crude, down from 1.37 million bpd in the same month last year.
(Source: Agencies)
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