TOKYO (AFP) — Japanese oil developer Inpex Corp. said Friday it would withdraw from Iran's Azadegan oilfield project, a move believed to be aimed at keeping it off a list of firms subject to U.S. sanctions. ""Inpex Corp. has reached an agreement with Iran's state oil company that its subsidiary will withdraw from the Azadegan oilfield development project,"" the Japanese government-backed company said in a statement. Iran's Azadegan oilfield, which has about 42 billion barrels of oil, was initially to have been developed with Inpex. The Japanese company in 2006 significantly lowered its stake from 75 percent to 10 percent due to worries about the risk of sanctions imposed on Iran as punishment for its controversial nuclear program. Earlier last month Japan imposed new sanctions against Iran, including an assets freeze on people and entities linked to the nuclear program and tighter restrictions on financial transactions. The steps followed Tokyo's approval of punitive measures in line with a UN Security Council resolution in June, which slapped a fourth set of sanctions on Iran for its refusal to halt uranium enrichment work. Iran is the fourth-biggest oil supplier to resource-poor Japan. Other Japanese companies are also carefully reviewing their Iran operations. In August Japanese auto giant Toyota suspended auto exports to Iran indefinitely in line with global sanctions against Tehran.