TOKYO: Japan has taken delivery of its first stockpile of oil from Russia since global supplies were choked off by the closure of the Strait of Hormuz at the start of the Iran war, reports said.
A tanker carrying crude that was produced as part of a Sakhalin-2 natural gas development project reached the coast of Imabari in western Japan on Monday (May 4), TV Tokyo, the Asahi Shimbun daily and other media said Monday, citing unnamed officials of wholesaler Taiyo Oil.
Japan, which depends on the Middle East for around 95 per cent of its oil imports, has tried to diversify sources of energy procurement since the outbreak of war on Feb 28 saw Tehran effectively shut the Strait.
The project in Russia's Sakhalin region is not subject to global economic sanctions against Moscow that were put in place after it invaded Ukraine in 2022.
Taiyo Oil received a request from the economy ministry to take in the petroleum, the reports said.
The crude is expected to be sent to a refinery, where it will be turned into gasoline, naphtha -- used to make various products from plastics, chemical fibers to paints -- and other petroleum products, the reports said.
Officials of the company could not immediately be reached to confirm the report.
A global oil supply squeeze is inflicting an "enormous impact" on the Asia-Pacific region, Japan's Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi said Monday in Canberra after talks with Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese.
Japan and Australia would respond urgently to secure stable energy supplies, she said.
Roughly a fifth of the world's oil normally passes through the Strait of Hormuz, and its closure has sent prices of the commodity soaring.
Takaichi said last week Tokyo was expected to have enough naphtha-derived chemical products to last beyond the end of the year after boosting imports from outside the Middle East.
Japan's relationship with Russia has soured since it joined in global sanctions on Moscow over the Ukraine war. - AFP
