"The South Korean government will not drag its feet, and the decision on importing oil from Iran will be made soon," one source with direct knowledge of the matter told Reuters on Friday.
Tehran has offered to provide up to USD 1 billion of insurance coverage to the Iranian ships carrying oil to South Korea, the source added.
Seoul is "considering accepting" Iran's offer, the other source said.
Earlier in July, Tehran proposed that South Korean oil refiners use Iranian oil tankers to transport the crude Seoul buys from the Islamic Republic; a move that would allow them to receive the shipments without concerns over insurance coverage, Yonhap news agency quoted a South Korean source as saying on condition of anonymity.
According to reports, South Korea purchased 9.4 percent, or about 87 million barrels, of all its oil imports from Iran last year.
Seoul's shipments to Iran also jumped 40.5 percent on-year to USD 2.9 billion in the first five months of this year.
The offer by the Islamic Republic is made to circumvent the US-engineered European Union (EU) insurance bans against Tehran.
On January 23, under pressure from the United States, the EU foreign ministers approved new sanctions against Tehran. The sanctions, which prevent the entire bloc’s member states from purchasing Iran's oil or extending insurance coverage for tankers carrying Iranian crude, came into effect on July 1.
The bans were imposed under the pretext that Iran is seeking to acquire a military nuclear capability. Tehran has rejected such allegations, noting that frequent inspections by the International Atomic Energy Agency have never found any diversion in its nuclear energy program toward military purposes.
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