TEHRAN, Jan. 10 (MNA) – It has been estimated that oil exports to Japan will increase twofold once the international sanctions are nullified.In the current situations, despite the surplus of 1.5 to 2 million barrels of crude oil in the market causing a serious challenge for oil producers and exporters, National Iranian Oil Company (NIOC) is seeking to extend oil sale contracts with traditional costumers like China, Japan, South Korea, India and Turkey.

Consequently, with the extension of deals to the year 2016 with a number of Chinese refineries including PetroChina, Sinopec, CNOOC and Zhuhai, similar negotiations are being undertaken with Japanese refineries as well.

Japan’s JX Nippon Oil & Energy Corporation, one of the largest costumers of the Iranian oil, has also recently announced the extension of the annual oil contract with Iran for the year 2016 with a capacity of 53 thousand barrels per day.

Seyed Mohsen Ghamsari, Executive Director for International Affairs at National Iranian Oil Company, had referred to the issue last week stating “a portion of oil sale and exports contracts have been extended while the deadline for remaining deals did not coincide with the beginning of the year 2016.”

Japan marks one of the strategic and traditional markets for the Iranian crude with a 40-year history in formation and development of crude oil trade between the two countries.

According to statistics, Japan’s import of Iranian crude oil in November 2015 showed a 3.1 per cent increase compared to the same period last year.

However, the biggest challenge facing the plan to increase Iran’s crude oil exports to Japanese refineries particularly during the post-sanction period remains that the capacity of the Asian country’s oil refineries has declined over the recent years.

Ghamsari has announced that Iran seeks to gain at least 10 per cent of Japan’s market after the lifting of international sanction reaching a daily export of 350 thousand barrels per day to the East Asian country.

Japanese refineries would put Iran as top priority for importing oil after the removal of sanctions due to the compatibility of Iran’s crude as well as its higher quality compared to the oil produced by other Persian Gulf states.

By Mehr News Agency