Reuters: The United States has asked the Japanese government to withdraw from Iran’s Azadegan oil field project in which Japanese oil developer Inpex Corp has a stake to reflect Washington’s sanctions on Tehran over its nuclear programme, a Japanese newspaper reported on Wednesday.
TOKYO, Sept 29 (Reuters) – The United States has asked the Japanese government to withdraw from Iran’s Azadegan oil field project in which Japanese oil developer Inpex Corp has a stake to reflect Washington’s sanctions on Tehran over its nuclear programme, a Japanese newspaper reported on Wednesday.
The Yomiuri newspaper quoted a Japanese government source as saying Washington has suggested Inpex could be mentioned in a new list of Iran-related firms to be targeted for U.S. sanctions and urged Tokyo to cooperate by dropping the investment.
Japan’s government is the biggest shareholder of Inpex, with an 18.9 percent stake after a recent multi-billion dollar share sale.
Earlier this month, Japan imposed additional sanctions on Iran, following the United States and European Union in pressuring Tehran despite Tokyo’s reliance on oil imports from the country.
At that time, Japan’s then trade minister, Masayuki Naoshima, said he did not expect any major change in Inpex’s investment, currently Japan’s sole energy-related stake in Iran.
When tension was growing in 2006 between the United States and Iran over the country’s uranium processing and nuclear power development, Inpex cut its stake in the Azadegan oil field project to 10 percent from 75 percent. (Reporting by Yoko Nishikawa)
