The Institute of Energy Economics, Japan, (IEEJ) said that it is expecting the Liquefied natural Gas (LNG) imports to increase to 88.75 million tonnes by next financial year.

The estimated imports in 2012-2013 are recorded to be 87.65 million tonnes which shall rise by the next financial year beginning in April. IEEJ gave forecasts over the Japan's total oil products which it said shall fall by 2.3% next year.

About the expected decline in the sales, the energy forecaster said that it was assuming that nine out of all 50 nuclear reactors in the country shall be operational. The forecast were revealed by IEEJ on Thursday.

As of now, only two nuclear reactors are operational in the country since last 18 months after the country was affected by the Fukushima nuclear disaster. Country's imports of crude oil from Iran shall expectedly drop by 15%.

Other top buyers of crude oil from Iran are China, India and South Korea and all of them are expected to cut down their imports. Japan shall restrict its oil imports to about 160,000 barrels per day (bdp) or more in the coming year.

"Maintaining that 160,000 barrels a day as a ceiling, refiners will look into reducing more, as JX cuts its own imports", said Kimura Yasushi, the Chairman of JX and the Petroleum Association of Japan.