Japan “breaks” the ceiling on Russian oil prices (with US approval)

the Japan He buys Russian oil Prices above the ceiling 60 dollars a barrelestablished by the United States and its Western partners in an effort to weaken the economic system Russia. Tokyo, one of Washington’s closest partners in Asia, after the American green light, “broke” the tacit agreement, creating a potentially dangerous precedent.

the Wall Street Journalwho reported the news, wrote that the Japanese government had persuaded the United States to exceed the above-mentioned limit to avoid the risk of losing access toRussian energynecessary for livelihood in the Japanese system.

In other words, the Japanese concession shows Japan’s dependence on Russia for fossil fuels. dependency which, according to many analysts, would also have contributed to limiting Tokyo’s full and immediate support for Ukraine.

Perhaps it is no coincidence that by virtue of this she is very sensitive Equilibrium To maintain that, Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida was the last G7 leader, in chronological order, to visit Kiev. It is also no coincidence that Japan is the only country in the Group of Seven that has not supplied the Ukrainian army with lethal weapons.

Japan move

As if that weren’t enough, many European countries are downsizing Accreditation Of the Kremlin’s energy supplies, Japan has increased its supplies over the past year Russian natural gas purchases.

Certainly, Tokyo has clearly expressed its position by condemning Moscow and imposing economic sanctions on it. In addition, Kishida noted that the G7 summit scheduled for next May in his hometown of Hiroshima would show more solidarity with Ukraine. Tokyo also reaffirmed that it is committed to supporting Kiev, but it can not send weapons because of the long-term restrictions on the export of these products.

However, the Russian oil purchases, despite their small size and the imposition of US sanctions, represent a fracture in the unity of the White House-led effort to impose a global cap of $60 a barrel on purchases of crude oil from Russia.

More importantly, Russia’s natural gas imports to Japan are relatively small, accounting for about a tenth of Tokyo’s supplies and a fraction of Moscow’s production. Most of what Russia exports to the Japanese mainland comes from the project Sakhalin-2located in the Russian Far East.

Energy security and price ceiling

The G7 countries, the European Union and Australia agreed to a maximum price of Russian seaborne crude oil of $60 to reduce Russia’s revenue from oil sales while preventing a rise in global oil prices, the black gold. Last year, A.Jexception, At the latest, until September 30, for the oil Japan purchased from the Sakhalin-2 project that was recalled.

On the contrary, the Germanywhich depended on Russia for 55% of its natural gas imports before the war, completely cut off imports of Russian energy resources, and reshaped the import infrastructure.

So there is no shortage of first controversies. It’s not that Japan can’t do without it (Russian Energy Resources Editor). Al said wsj extension James Brown, Professor at Temple University’s Japan Campus. the professor. Brown, who studies Russo-Japanese relations, said Japan should eventually withdraw from the Sakhalin projects “if it is really serious about supporting Ukraine”.

In the first two months of this year, Japan bought approx 748,000 Russia’s oil barrel totaled 6.9 billion yen, according to official trade statistics. At the current exchange rate, this translates to 52 million dollars, or just under $70 a barrel. Russia exports millions of barrels of oil per day, making Japan’s purchases a small part of total Russian production.