JAPAN has started to provide up to JPY877.8 billion (US$7.98 billion) shipping insurance cover for tankers carrying Iranian crude for fiscal year 2015-16 from April-March) as uncertainty clouds Western sanctions against Iran.
The insurance cover for Iranian oil has reached a record level, up almost 15 per cent from JPY764.4 billion in fiscal 2014-15, mainly due to a weaker yen against the dollar.
The Minister of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism Akihiro Ohta signed a contract with a Japanese shipowner to provide insurance to one of its VLCCs carrying Iranian oil, Platts reported.
In order to get the government-funded shipping insurance scheme, Japanese shipowners need to sign contracts with the transport minister for every vessel the companies use to carry Iranian oil.
Japan introduced a supplementary insurance scheme in June 2012 to enable crude imports from Iran in the wake of a ban by the EU on P&I cover for tankers carrying Iranian oil.
Over January-February, Japan imported an average of 207,943 barrels per day of crude from Iran, down 22 per centfrom 234,390 barrels per day in same period of 2014, according to data compiled by the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry, Platts reported.
It was still not certain what the recent agreements between the P5+1 governments and Iran will mean for the shipping industry, most notably the National Iranian Tanker Company (NITC).
Iran said the P5+1 nuclear talks had reached a mutual understanding paving the way for Iranian oil tankers to resume visits to European ports. NITC managing director Ali Akbar Safaie said his company had started talks with European countries over the return of Iranian tankers to their ports.
But the European Union re-imposed sanctions on an Iranian bank and 32 Iranian shipping companies using new legal grounds after an EU court annulled an asset freeze on the Bank Tejarat and 40 Iranian shipping companies.
Sanctions on Iran will only be lifted after a final agreement, which the P5+1 and Iran aim to sign by June 30 say EU sources.
WORLD SHIPPING
13 April 2015 - 21:46
Japan offers Iran shipping insurance as doubts cloud western sanctions
JAPAN has started to provide up to JPY877.8 billion (US$7.98 billion) shipping insurance cover for tankers carrying Iranian crude for fiscal year 2015-16 from April-March) as uncertainty clouds Western sanctions against Iran.
WORLD SHIPPING
13 April 2015 - 21:46
Japan offers Iran shipping insurance as doubts cloud western sanctions
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