Japan’s oil refiners, which source about 95% of their crude supply from the Middle East, are calling on the Japanese government to tap the strategic petroleum reserves to ensure smooth operations and crude for refineries as the Middle East war escalates.
Japanese refiners are in talks with the government to potentially access strategic stockpiles and oil stored in tanks that are leased to producing countries, anonymous sources with knowledge of the development told Bloomberg on Thursday.
On Tuesday, Ryosei Akazawa, the Japanese Minister of Economy, Trade, and Industry, said that the government has no immediate plans to release crude from the strategic reserves.
Japan is heavily reliant on crude from the Middle East—it sources about 95% of its crude oil supply from the region, mostly from Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, the United Arab Emirates (UAE), and Qatar.
Of these Middle Eastern supplies, about 70% typically arrive in Japan on tankers traveling through the Strait of Hormuz.
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But the world’s most critical oil transit chokepoint has been effectively closed to tanker traffic since the beginning of the week after the war in the Middle East escalated and shipowners stopped passing the narrow lane while insurers’ clubs ended war risk coverage for vessels in the Strait of Hormuz and nearby waters in the Persian Gulf and the Gulf of Oman.
As one of the oil importers most reliant on crude supply from the Middle East, Japan, a G-7 economy, faces high risk of delays of crude deliveries.
Japan, however, can rely on a large enough reserve and is a member of the International Energy Agency (IEA), which requires member states to ensure oil stock levels equivalent to no less than 90 days of net imports and to be ready to collectively respond to severe supply disruptions affecting the global oil market.
At the end of 2025, Japan had 254 days of oil reserves, including 146 days worth of consumption in national reserves, and more than 100 days of inventories with the private sector.
By Tsvetana Paraskova for Oilprice.com
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