Japanese refiner Cosmo Oil may substitute Iranian oil imports with Kuwaiti crude, if the company faces difficulty trading with Tehran following the US decision to re-impose sanctions on the OPEC producer, a senior company official Thursday said. Speaking at an earnings press briefing, Cosmo Energy Holdings’ director and senior executive Kenichi Taki said the company was not overly concerned about the barriers blocking access to Iranian crude supply going forward. Iranian grades account for 4%-5% of Cosmo’s crude feedstock imports and it can be altered with Kuwaiti crude or other grades, Taki said. Cosmo Oil has a combined refining capacity of 363,000 b/d from three refineries in Japan. Cosmo’s announcement did not come as a big surprise as various end-users in Japan, as well as in South Korea, have stepped up efforts to diversify their crude procurement sources as their trading activities with Tehran would be limited in the […]