Japan's lower house of parliament has endorsed a bill to allow Japanese government to insure Iranian crude oil importing shipments, in an effort to counter new US-European Union sanctions against Iran.
Yet to be voted by the upper house, the major opposition parties already indicated their support for the legislation and if passed, the bill will become a law by 27 June 2012 before the end of current parliamentary session next week, an unnamed government official said.
Japan's National Resource Research Institute expert Akio Shibata said: "Japan needs the Iranian oil as part of its oil supply."
"So the government is creating a framework to allow continued purchases despite the EU sanctions," Shibata added.
The scheme is expected to provide coverage of up to $7.6bn for each tanker, carrying Iranian crude bound for Japan in the event of accidents.
Effective from 1 July 2012, the new European Union sanctions will restrict EU insurance firms from providing liabilities relating to imports of Iranian crude oil.
The US and EU sanctions on Iran's oil exports is aimed at halting a suspected nuclear programme undertaken by Iran to produce nuclear weapons.
