A major Japanese oil company has acknowledged obtaining petroleum from Russia for the first time since the Strait of Hormuz was sealed off in the Iran war.
Officials of Taiyo Oil Co. said a tanker loaded with petroleum from Sakhalin-2, an oil and gas extraction project, anchored near the company’s Shikoku office in Imabari, Ehime Prefecture, on May 4.
While the volume was not divulged, officials said they had received a request from the economy ministry to take in the petroleum.
Japan acquires about 90 percent of its petroleum through the now-blockaded Strait of Hormuz, and officials had been seeking alternative sources.
Russian petroleum had been subject of Western economic sanctions since Moscow invaded Ukraine, but Sakhalin-2 is exempted.
Japan also buys liquified natural gas (LNG) from Sakhalin-2, and petroleum is produced along with the LNG.
LNG production would be halted if tanks holding petroleum became full. Japanese government officials had lobbied for allowing Sakhalin-2 petroleum to be exempted from the sanctions.