apanese oil refiners Cosmo Oil Co. and Japan Energy Corp. have started paying Iran for crude oil imports in yen instead of dollars, company spokesmen said Tuesday. Iran has been trying to persuade Asian buyers to make payments in non-U.S. currencies to reduce its U.S. dollar holdings, a move that is seen as a response to the dollar's recent weakness and to pressure from Washington to limit Iran's dealings with the U.S. financial system.
The moves by the two companies, as well as a similar step taken in September by Nippon Oil Corp., the Japan's largest refiner, may trigger other Asian refiners to move away from U.S. dollar payment.
Tokyo-based Cosmo -- Japan's fourth-largest refiner by capacity at 635,000 barrels a day -- said it has started paying for all its crude oil purchases from Iran in yen, starting with September loading cargoes. Iranian crude accounted for 11 percent of all crude processed by the company in the last fiscal year ended in March, Cosmo spokesman Tatsuya Yano said.
Japan Energy, the country's sixth-largest refiner by capacity, buys around 400,000 barrels a day of crude, with about 12 percent of it coming from Iran under term contracts through traders.
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http://www.businessweek.com/ap/financialnews/D8S5HBK03.htm