Japan considering alternative oil supplies

JAPAN: Imminent international sanctions on Iranian oil exports aimed at pushing Tehran into giving up its nuclear programme have left resource-poor Japan searching for alternative supplies, officials said Friday.

With virtually no fossil fuels of its own, energy-hungry Japan is heavily dependent on the Middle East, with Iranian oil accounting for nearly nine percent of its power needs in the first 11 months of last year.

Unlike its major allies, Tokyo has maintained a working relationship with Tehran, but the EU and the US are now stepping up efforts to squeeze Iran over what they believe is a nuclear weapons programme under the guise of a civilian power project.

That has led to pressure on Japan to look elsewhere for its oil with Tokyo's largest supplier, Saudi Arabia an obvious choice.

An official at JX Nippon Oil & Energy, Japan's biggest petroleum refiner, said it would cope with a ban on Iranian crude oil by "switching to imports from other Middle East countries and other regions including West Africa."

"We are talking with Saudi Arabia and other oil producing countries about measures in the event of a problem arising in Iranian supplies," the official told AFP. "But we cannot give you details on what we are discussing."

Japan's industry minister Yukio Edano said the world's third biggest economy was prepared to "make efforts to minimise the impact (of such an oil embargo) on our country and the world economy."

"We are not at a stage where we should answer a hypothetical question," the minister of economy, trade and industry told a regular news conference. "But, as a matter of course, we are making preparations by taking every possibility into consideration."

Foreign Minister Koichiro Gemba on Thursday left for an eight-day trip. AFP