Europe repaid Tokyo a favour by supporting oil stock release, Japan minister says

The International Energy Agency on March 11 agreed to release a record 400 million barrels of oil from strategic stockpiles. Read more at straitstimes.com.

TOKYO - Europe repaid Japan a favour when agreeing on a joint oil stockpile release this week to ease the supply crisis and price spikes caused by the Iran war, Japan’s Industry Minister Ryosei Akazawa said on March 14.

The International Energy Agency on March 11 agreed to release a record 400 million barrels of oil from strategic stockpiles to combat a spike in global crude prices since the start of the US-Israeli war with Iran on Feb 28.

G7 member Japan, which relies on Middle Eastern oil for around 90 per cent of its supplies, said it planned to release around 80 million barrels from its private and national oil reserves as its contribution starting from March 16.

At G7 and IEA meetings this week, Japan changed the minds of European leaders who initially were cautious of releasing oil stockpiles as their dependency on the Strait of Hormuz is smaller, Mr Akazawa said on the sidelines of the Indo-Pacific Energy Security Ministerial and Business Forum in Tokyo.

“We understand that this is Europe’s return of the favour that Japan released oil to help Europe in a difficult time during the Ukraine crisis in 2022,” he said, referring to the oil price spikes and supply crisis following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine four years ago.

Japan has stopped buying oil from Russia since then and has significantly increased liquefied natural gas imports from the United States - now at around 6 per cent of Japan’s total - and Japanese companies continue to boost their exposure to US energy.