Azerbaijan, Baku, Dec. 29/ Trend M. Moezzi
Japanese companies have renewed their January-April 2012 oil contracts with Iran without any significant drop in their purchases, Pana News Agency reported.
The United States' Congress approved a bill punishing financial institutions doing business with the Central Bank of Iran. This has created serious problems for Iran's oil customers trying to pay for the oil they buy.
In November, Japan's import of 228,000 barrels a day of oil from Iran was 38 per cent lower than the same period last year. The decrease was because of Iran's delay in delivering the oil Japan had purchased, a source said.
Japan, along with Iran's other Asian oil customers like South Korea and India, has tried to use diplomacy to avoid new oil sanctions against Iran because they could lead to a significant increase in world oil prices and make the current poor economic conditions even worse.
At least one of Iran's Japanese oil customers had increased its oil purchase, but the oil wasn't delivered on time, sources said.
There have been other instances of Iran's oil being delivered late in June and July this year because the oil tankers bought by Iran were delivered late.