RTRS:China extends Iran crude import cuts into March -sources
* March cuts similar to Jan/Feb when imports more than halved
* Sinopec, NIOC likely to resume term talks this week in Beijing
* Two sides divided over credit terms, prices for 2012 contract (Adds details, background)
By Chen Aizhu
BEIJING, Feb 6 (Reuters) - China will halve its crude oil imports from Iran in March compared to average monthly purchases a year ago, as a dispute over payments and prices stretches into a third month, sources said on Monday.
China is the top buyer of Iranian oil, taking around 20 percent of total exports, but it has since January cut purchases by around 285,000 barrels per day (bpd), or just over half of the total daily amount it imported in 2011.
Negotiators from both nations, however, are expected to hold talks as early as this week to resolve the payments dispute, the sources said, adding that the European Union embargo on Iranian crude gave China an advantage in any talks.
"For March loadings, it will be the same cuts as the previous month," said one senior trading official.
A second industry official, whose firm processes Iranian oil, said: "Our Iranian volumes disappeared for the whole of the first quarter."
Tensions between Iran and the West rose this month when European Union leaders agreed to embargo Iranian oil by July and to freeze the assets of Iran's central bank, joining the United States in a new round of measures aimed at discouraging Tehran's nuclear development programme.
Iran has warned that it could cut off oil exports to Europe before July 1, and also threatened to close the vital Strait of Hormuz shipping lane, a move Washington said it would not tolerate.
Officials from Sinopec Corp, Asia's top refiner that processes nearly 90 percent of China's Iranian oil purchases, will likely meet counterparts from the National Iranian Oil Company this week to discuss 2012 term supplies, the sources said.
The term supply contracts would usually have been concluded by December or January.
China increased its imports of Iranian crude by 30 percent in 2011 to an all-time high of 27.76 million tonnes, or about 555,000 bpd. (Additional reporting by Judy Hua in Beijing and Peg Mackey in London; editing by Miral Fahmy)
