Cosmo Oil is now scheduled to load around 900,000
barrels of Iranian Heavy crude on a very large crude carrier around March 4-5
and discharge the cargo in Japan around March 27-28 after calling at Ras Tanura
in Saudi Arabia, and Zirku Island in Abu Dhabi, the sources said.
Cosmo Oil's scheduled loading of Iranian Heavy
crude, however, will likely be the last loading of Iranian barrels before the
current US sanctions waivers expire without clarity for extension beyond May,
the sources added.
The US continues to pursue a zero-tolerance policy
for its Iran oil sanctions and is urging importers to eliminate all purchases
from the Middle East country, Francis Fannon, assistant secretary at the US
State Department's Bureau of Energy Resources, said Monday during a visit to
Japan.
"The
US policy is to drive Iranian exports to zero," Fannon said during a media
briefing in Tokyo. "That policy has not changed. We are unwavering in our
policy."
Fannon was asked whether Washington would consider
extending Iran sanctions waivers when they expire in May, given falling
supplies from Saudi Arabia as a result of the production cut agreement by OPEC
and allies, and the ongoing crisis in sanctions-hit Venezuela.
He said it was premature to say whether the state
department would grant new waivers in May to the eight countries that were
allowed to continue importing Iranian oil in return for promising to
significantly cut their dependence on the supplies.
Fannon was in Japan after visiting South Korea
early last week. Both oil-importing countries are asking Washington to grant
them new 180-day waivers to import Iranian crude when the current exemptions
expire May 4.
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