TOKYO (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 11th April, 2023) Japan intends to continue participating in energy projects on the Russian island of Sakhalin, as they are important in terms of ensuring energy security, according to Japan's fresh Diplomatic Bluebook released on Tuesday.
"While we intend to phase out our dependency on Russian energy sources, including oil and coal, in the energy sector, as far as the Sakhalin-1 and Sakhalin-2 gas projects in Russia are concerned, they are important projects in terms of Japan's energy security, and we maintain our policy of continuing to participate in them," the document read.
Tokyo emphasized that the government intends to temporarily suspend economic cooperation with Russia, including the 2016 eight-point cooperation plan, against the backdrop of worsening Russia-Japan relations due to the Ukrainian conflict.
Sakhalin-2 is an oil and gas project which includes the exploration of the two oil and gas fields in the North-East of Sakhalin Piltun-Astokhskoye (oil mostly) and Lunskoye (gas mostly). The project's infrastructure includes, among other assets, a gas liquefaction plant with the estimated capacity of 9.6 million tonnes per year. Japan receives about 9% of all its LNG imports from the Sakhalin-2 project.
Last August, the Sakhalin-2 project changed its operator from Bermuda-registered Sakhalin Energy to Russian company Sakhalin Energy Investment Company Ltd., owning 50% in the Gazprom Sakhalin Holding. Japanese companies Mitsui and Mitsubishi accepted the change of jurisdiction and kept their shares in Sakhalin-2, which were 12.5% and 10% respectively.
