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

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.

SS