TOKYO, March 19. /ITAR-TASS/. Russian-Japanese energy cooperation has huge expansion prospects, reaching tens and hundreds of billions of dollars through Rosneft alone, CEO of the Russian oil company Igor Sechin said at a plenary meeting of the sixth Russian-Japanese Investment Forum that opened in Tokyo on Wednesday.
“The bilateral cooperation expansion prospects are huge,” Sechin stressed. “According to our estimates, it’s tens and even hundreds of billions of dollars through our company alone.” He also noted that Japan “can count on a considerable increase in the supply of hydrocarbons and electricity.” “To ensure energy security of Japan and the whole Asia-Pacific Region in the future, Rosneft is ready to offer the widest options for meeting the oil and natural gas demand,” he added.
Sechin said that Russia was interested not only in attracting separate partners, but also in the joint work on the whole production chain - “recovery, infrastructure, processing and transport of resources.” “For achieving a long-term economic effect, the exchange of assets and a stricter contract system are extremely important,” the Rosneft head said. “It will allow us to fully avoid the political and contractual risks.”
Sechin highly praised the work of Japanese partners. “Some of them, work, for example, in Iraq with the level of profitability of 7%,” he said. “Taking into account the inflation rate, these are truly heroic efforts.” Sechin stressed that Russia’s profitability level “is considerably higher.”
The Rosneft head in his speech expressed the hope for the further active cooperation with Japan and invited Japanese partners to take part in petrochemical and shipbuilding projects in the Russian Far East.
The sixth Russian-Japanese Investment Forum opened in the Japanese capital on Wednesday with the participation of more than 700 representatives of the two countries’ governments and businesses. The investment forum participants discuss issues related to the improvement of Russia's investment climate, the opening of new spheres of investment cooperation between the two countries.