Taiwan to expand oil imports from Iran as sanctions gone

Greece’s main oil refiner HELPE said on Friday, just days after worldwide sanctions on Iranian oil exports were lifted, that it had reached a deal to import crude supplies.

Japan has chose to lift its sanctions on Iran after the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) confirmed the country had implemented measures promised under the newly-reached deal on its nuclear programme, Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida said.

Deliveries will begin immediately, Hellenic Petroleum said in an e-mailed statement on Friday.

Zamaninia further noted that the Prime Minister of Greece Alexis Tsipras will make a visit to Tehran in February asserting “the cooperation agreements between Iran and Greece will become finalized in the upcoming trip”.

Hellenic owns three of Greece’s four refineries with a total processing capacity of 343,000 b/d.

That has left some companies cautious, with Japanese oil refiners saying they will keep using special government insurance to ship Iranian oil because of uncertainty over whether USA insurers can provide coverage, Reuters reported.

Last Monday, NIOC ordered a 500,000 b/d oil output hike, of which 200,000 b/d will go to Europe.

Japan was one of the key clients of Iran’s oil before the US-led sanctions were imposed on the Islamic Republic in 2012.

The oil market is bracing itself for a ramp up in supplies from Iran amid a global supply glut that pushed prices down to a 12-year low.

Europe had been Iran’s second-biggest oil customer before sanctions were introduced, purchasing almost 600,000 barrels a day from the Middle East nation in 2011, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration.

The prospects for the removal of the sanctions against Iran encouraged the Japanese officials to look for the avenues to return to the previous status of oil relations with Iran.