Japan resumed in January 2023 for the first time since May 2022 imports of Russian oil. According to S&P Global Platts, the volume of deliveries amounted to 24.1 thousand bpd.
We are talking about the purchase of Sakhalin Blend oil, which is a mixture of low sulfur Vityaz and gas condensate. In January 2022, imports of this type of oil in Japan amounted to 24,500 b/d, in May to 21,000 b/d. This is evidenced by data from the country’s Ministry of Finance.
In 2022, Japan cut Russian oil supplies by 60.2%, to 35,500 bpd, after Prime Minister Fumio Kishida announced state support for the G7 countries’ decision to give up the energy resource of the Russian Federation. The refusal ultimately led to an increase in Japan’s reliance on Middle Eastern manufacturers, whose share of imports fell from 92.7% in 2021 to 94.1% in 2022.
Thus, the share of oil supplies from the Middle East to Japan in January 2023 stood at 94.4% compared to 91.8% in January last year. Oil imports from all sources increased by 0.3% to 2.72 million b/d. At the same time, 1.2 million b/d came from Saudi Arabia.
Experts attribute Japan’s return to buying Russian oil to the restoration of resource production at the former Sakhalin PSA Sakhalin-1 and Sakhalin-2 projects. In October last year, their total oil production amounted to 385 thousand tons, and in November – already 849 thousand tons.
Earlier, commodities firm Kpler concluded that Russia would continue to sell as much oil as possible to India despite a pick-up in demand from China. Moscow wishes to maintain and increase its share in Indian imports, favoring China.
