March 16, 2018
Japan is not buying any Iranian crude in the month of March, slashing Iran’s exports by a third. Reuters quoted a source as saying uncertainty over sovereign insurance for Japan’s tankers had prompted the halt to crude buys from Iran. Japan started providing its own insurance for tankers going to Iran in 2012 when international sanctions stopped insurance firms from covering tankers that called at Iran. It wasn’t clear why a problem had just erupted now after almost four years of Japanese government coverage.
