Japan's top buyer of Iranian crude, Showa Shell Sekiyu KK, said on Tuesday it was buying about 100,000 barrels per day of crude oil from Iran, steady with last year, despite the mounting pressure from the United States to cut imports.

 

"We will carefully watch the ongoing bilateral discussions between Japan and the United States," President Jun Arai told reporters. "(Iran) is an important source of crude for Japan as well as our company, and we will wait for the government's guidance on the matter."

 

The comment comes as U.S. sanctions on Iran  look set to make it difficult for refiners in Japan, Iran's number three crude buyer, to pay Tehran for its oil.

 

Japan is seeking an exemption from U.S. sanctions, which, if enforced, would penalize some Japanese banks for doing transactions with Iran's central bank.

 

Iranian crude accounted for 8.8 percent of Japan's total imports in 2011. Iran is the fourth-biggest crude supplier to Japan.

 

 

The company has raised the operating rate of its group refineries, with total capacity of 395,000 bpd, to more than 99 percent of capacity in the fourth quarter of 2012 after the closure of its 120,000 bpd Ohgimachi facility in September, Arai said.

 

That figure is up from the 2011 average of 93.2 percent and 84.2 percent in 2010.

 

The power venture with Tokyo Gas, the gas-fired 814 MW Ohgishima Power Station in Yokohama, operated at near full capacity following the March 2011 earthquake that forced indefinite shutdowns of many nuclear reactors and some fossil fuel-fired plants in quake-hit northern Japan, Arai said.

 

(Source: Reuters)