TOKYO, May 28. /TASS/. Japan has recently purchased about 720 thousand barrels of oil from Russia, said the deputy secretary general of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP), Koichi Hagiuda.
This refers to oil, the supplies of which are linked to gas contracts within the framework of the Sakhalin-2 project and which is not subject to anti-Russian sanctions. "We brought in 720,000 barrels," Hagiuda said in a conversation with a local YouTube blogger on his channel.
Hagiuda did not specify what kind of delivery he was talking about, but made it clear that it occurred after the start of the Iranian crisis and the blockade of the Strait of Hormuz. The ruling party's deputy secretary general, who was previously a member of the late former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's faction, also lamented that Japanese media are barely covering the issue.
Koichi Hagiuda admitted that Japan, despite historically "good and friendly" relations with Iran, cannot unilaterally agree with it to allow Japanese ships to freely pass through the Strait of Hormuz. "The whole world will just hate us for this," he explained, laughing. However, the LDP deputy secretary general acknowledged that Tokyo needs to reduce its dependence on the Middle East for oil supplies due to the high level of risks.
Russian oil purchases
In early May, two Japanese companies, Taiyo Oil and Idemitsu Kosan, informed TASS about the purchase of a shipment of Russian oil from Sakhalin. Japan rejected oil imports from Russia after 2022, but Japanese companies, at the government's request, sometimes purchase small quantities from the Sakhalin-2 project, tied to LNG deliveries. At the same time, both Taiyo Oil and Idemitsu Kosan, commenting on the oil purchase to TASS, stated that this decision was made as part of the diversification of oil supply sources. They did not disclose the volume or details of the contract. On Thursday, the Japanese company ENEOS told TASS that the company also purchased oil from Russia. The oil company emphasized that the purchased oil "is not subject to economic sanctions," but declined to disclose the volume of oil purchased.
Japan recently has the dependence of more than 90% on oil supplies from the Middle East, with the bulk of oil passing through the Strait of Hormuz. Tokyo announced that the country will search for alternative supplies but Russia was not mentioned among such sources.