Japan will base any decisions about energy imports on its national interests, the country’s trade minister Yoji Muto has said, following suggestions from the Trump administration that Japan suspends all purchases of Russian oil and gas.
“Since the invasion of Ukraine, Japan has been steadily reducing its dependence on Russian energy,” Muto told media earlier today, as quoted by Reuters, following a meeting between U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and Japanese Finance Minister Katsunobu Kato, at which Bessent urged Kato to stop buying Russian oil and gas.
In a sign of conformity with is European G7 peers, Japan in September lowered a price cap on Russian crude from $60 to $47.60 although it was more of a token gesture than anything else—Japan has a waiver from the price cap due to the essential nature of Russian oil for its energy security, per Japanese government officials.
“We recognise that LNG from Sakhalin-2 plays an extremely important role in Japan’s energy security,” Trade Minister Muto also said, adding that it accounted for 3% of Japan’s electricity generation. While small as a percentage, the amount is likely not insignificant in absolute terms, given the size of Japan’s economy.
The Trump administration has embarked on a pressure campaign against all large importers of Russian hydrocarbons on the grounds that depriving Russia of energy export revenues would deprive it of the financial means to continue fighting the Ukrainian forces. Yet it is unlikely that the campaign will succeed as planned, even with the deployment of stick-and-carrot approach that President Trump has chosen in his dealings with the two top buyers of Russian oil and gas, China and India.
However, sanctions and price swings on international markets have already affected Russian energy export revenues in a negative way, which has failed to change anything about Moscow’s goals in what it calls a special military operation and has had zero effect on developments on the battlefield.
By Irina Slav for Oilprice.com
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