TOKYO, May 28. /TASS/. Japan has recently purchased about 720 thousand barrels of oil from Russia, said the deputy secretary general of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP), Koichi Hagiuda.
This refers to oil, the supplies of which are linked to gas contracts within the framework of the Sakhalin-2 project and which is not subject to anti-Russian sanctions. "We brought in 720,000 barrels," Hagiuda said in a conversation with a local YouTube blogger on his channel.
Hagiuda did not specify what kind of delivery he was talking about, but made it clear that it occurred after the start of the Iranian crisis and the blockade of the Strait of Hormuz. The ruling party's deputy secretary general, who was previously a member of the late former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's faction, also lamented that Japanese media are barely covering the issue.
Koichi Hagiuda admitted that Japan, despite historically "good and friendly" relations with Iran, cannot unilaterally agree with it to allow Japanese ships to freely pass through the Strait of Hormuz. "The whole world will just hate us for this," he explained, laughing. However, the LDP deputy secretary general acknowledged that Tokyo needs to reduce its dependence on the Middle East for oil supplies due to the high level of risks.
