Japan and Russia Agree To Increase Energy Relations
Bloomberg
TOKYO — Japan and Russia have pledged to strengthen reciprocal relations in oil and natural gas development and increase trade at a ministerial meeting in Tokyo. Energy Minister Viktor Khristenko of Russia and Foreign Minister Taro Aso of Japan discussed two oil and gas projects on Russia’s Sakhalin Island and an East Siberian oil pipeline project, a Japanese Foreign Ministry official said, speaking on condition of anonymity. The two ministers met for two hours Monday. Japan, which imports 89 percent of its oil from the Middle East, is increasing its reliance on Russian energy assets such as oil, gas and uranium enrichment processes to strengthen its supply security. That contrasts with Europe, Russia’s largest energy market, where nations have discussed cutting reliance on Russian oil and gas after a series of supply disruptions. “Japan should expand oil and gas imports from Russia,” Hidetoshi Shioda, senior energy analyst at Mizuho Securities in Tokyo, said by telephone. “Cutting dependence on the Middle East means mitigating risks of any supply disruption in the region in the years ahead.” In the talks, Khristenko called Japan a vital market for Russia’s oil and gas exports, the official said. The two ministers agreed that their countries should be able to expand trade in areas including energy, fishery and agricultural products, transportation and information technology. Khristenko told Aso that Russia had completed a 700-kilometer section of its proposed 4,300-kilometer oil pipeline from Taishet in eastern Siberia to Perevoznaya on Russia’s Pacific coast, the official said. In the first phase of the project, Russia will build a pipeline to Skovorodino by the end of 2008 and construct an extension line to Perevoznaya in the second phase. Japan has lobbied for the construction of the pipeline to Perevoznaya to boost imports from eastern Siberian fields.
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