Japan Could End Iran Oil Loading

Japan's oil refiners may have to end Iranian crude oil loading from Oct. 1, if the Japanese government does not secure an exemption from US sanctions that would allow them to continue imports from the Middle Eastern nation, the president of the Petroleum Association of Japan said. "If payments to Iran cannot continue after a 180-day wind-down period ending on Nov. 4, it is possible that Japanese buyers of Iranian oil will have to make their last order for Iranian oil in August for September-loading cargoes," said Takashi Tsukioka, who is also chairman of Japan’s second-biggest refiner, Idemitsu Kosan Company, Reuters reported. This is because the payment for October-loading cargoes would be made in November, he told a monthly news conference on Friday. Refiners in South Korea, a US ally and one of Iran’s largest customers, are shunning a type of oil known as condensate from Iran to feed the nation’s petrochemical plants, and instead buying unusually large amounts of a processed fuel known as naphtha from elsewhere.