Russian oil tanker arrives in Japan as Middle East supply concerns grow

A tanker carrying Russian oil has arrived at a terminal in Japan, with Japanese companies stepping up purchases amid disruption to Middle East energy supplies, Kommersant newspaper reported on May 31, citing state media.

The tanker Voyager delivered a consignment of Russian oil to a terminal operated by Japanese company ENEOS at the port of Kiire, according to ship-tracking services. Earlier in May, the same vessel had delivered oil from Sakhalin to Japanese firms Taiyo Oil and Idemitsu Kosan.

The delivery is a move that illustrates both the depth of Tokyo's long-term stake in Russia's Far East energy projects and the speed with which geopolitical calculations shift when 95 per cent of a country's oil imports are cut off at source.

Management at those companies said they had decided to buy crude from Russia to diversify their supply sources, while ENEOS said Japan's Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry had requested additional alternative oil supplies due to the situation in the Middle East.

Japan stopped importing Russian oil after 2022, though Japanese companies occasionally buy small consignments from the Sakhalin-2 project at the authorities' request, linked to LNG supplies.

Japanese companies have begun buying Russian oil more actively due to disruptions in energy supplies from the Middle East. Japan depends on the region for more than 90% of its oil, much of which passes through the Strait of Hormuz.

Japan's Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi, speaking in Canberra on May 4 after talks with Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, said the global oil supply squeeze was inflicting "enormous impact" on the Asia-Pacific region and that Japan and Australia would respond urgently to secure stable energy supplies.

Takaichi said Tokyo expected to have enough naphtha-derived chemical products to last beyond the end of the year after boosting imports from outside the Middle East.

Japan's broader response to the Hormuz crisis has included accelerated purchases from the United States and diversified naphtha imports from non-Middle Eastern suppliers.

The Voyager and Sakhalin cargoes is one element of a multi-front supply diversification, but it is the element that requires the most delicate political management, given Russia's continued war against Ukraine and Japan's formal alignment with the G7 sanctions coalition.