News / Energy

Japan's Fuji Oil loads first Iran oil cargo since US sanctions waiver

Monday, 21 January 2019 3:20 PM [ Last Update: Monday, 21 January 2019 3:24 PM ]

This file photo shows an oil tanker owned and operated by the National Iranian Tanker Company (NITC).

Governor of the Central Bank of Iran (CBI) Abdolnaser Hemmati says Japan has restarted importing crude oil from Iran, with Fuji Oil loading the first such cargo since the United States granted Tokyo waiver over renewed sanctions on the Islamic Republic's energy sector.

"After China, South Korea, India and Turkey, Japan has also started importing oil from Iran," Hemmati said in a message on his Instagram account on Monday.

He added that the new oil revenues along with tens of billions of dollars of the CBI's active reserves in foreign banks would be gradually infused into the country's trade sector.

The CBI governor then noted that the Central Bank has reached agreements with Iranian exporters, which will allow the revenue from the country’s non-oil exports to be used to boost imports in a gradual manner.

Reuters on Monday quoted a spokesman for the Japanese refiner Fuji Oil Co as saying that the company has lifted Iranian crude oil in the first cargo to head for Japan since the country received a waiver from US sanctions on Tehran.

According to the Fuji official and Eikon data, the VLCC Kisogawa loaded two million barrels of Iranian oil on Sunday and is expected to reach Japan on February 9.

In November, the administration of US President Donald Trump restored all Iran sanctions that had been lifted in 2015 after the nuclear deal, officially known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), was signed between Tehran and the five permanent members of the UN Security Council – the US, Britain, France, Russia and China plus Germany.

The US administration later agreed to allow eight countries, which were major customers of Iran's crude, to continue purchasing crude oil from Tehran.

Following the development, South Korea and Japan announced that they were preparing to resume imports of crude oil and condensate from Iran, with SK Innovation, South Korea's biggest oil refiner by sales, saying that it planned loadings of South Pars condensate for early January delivery

PressTV-South Korea, Japan say to resume Iranian oil imports

South Korea and Japan are preparing to resume imports of crude oil and condensate from Iran after a temporary halt, the two countries announced on Tuesday.

South Korea is among major buyers of Iranian South Pars condensate, an ultra-light oil which is mainly used as a raw material to make petrochemicals like plastics.

Earlier this month, Turkey also resumed imports of crude from Iran under the US waivers.