Japan bought 14 percent of Iran’s oil exports between January and June 2011 – 1 percentage point more than second-ranked India. But imports trailed off to 251,000 bpd in the second half of that period, reports Reuters, which shuffled the country’s ranking down to third.
Japan has decreased imports from Iran by close to 40 percent since 2007, according to Bloomberg. However, it is not prepared to cut off the supplier completely, despite encouragement from the US following the most recent international sanctions.
Japan recently pressured the US for an exemption from its embargo on international institutions financing Iranian oil sales. In early February, Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda said “the trend is we’ll cut oil imports from Iran,” as Japan continues to try to tap other suppliers, reports Bloomberg.
