TEHRAN- Japan will receive a naphtha cargo from Iran this month, as the first shipment of the product from the Middle Eastern country since 2011.

Naphtha is a flammable liquid made from distilling petroleum. It looks like gasoline. Naphtha is used to dilute heavy oil to help move it through pipelines, to make high-octane gas, to make lighter fluid, and even to clean metal.

Japan's Mitsubishi is to receive the naphtha cargo from Iran, a source with direct knowledge of the matter told S&P Global Platts.

This will be Japan's first import of Iranian naphtha since the country last imported 47,212 million tons in 2011, according to the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry data.

Japanese trading houses and refiners did not import any of Iranian naphtha since the EU imposed in mid-2012 its ban on P&I reinsurance cover for Iranian oil shipping, market sources said.

MA/MG