Japan reported having no choice but to buy Russian gas

Takeshi Hashimoto, president of a major Japanese freight transport company Mitsui OSK Lines, has said that the country has no other choice but to buy Russian gas.

He expressed this opinion in an interview with the Financial Times, Gazeta.ru reports.

"Japan cannot refuse to import Russian LNG (liquefied natural gas) due to the sharp rise in energy prices and limited opportunities in the field of nuclear energy," he said.

The head of Mitsui OSK stressed that Russian fuel is cheap under long-term contracts with Japan. This is one of the main reasons why the Asian island state does not want to abandon the import of Russian LNG. In total, the share of Russian gas in Japan's imports is 10 per cent.

On June 30, Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a decree on the transfer of Sakhalin Energy, the operator of the Sakhalin-2 oil and gas project, to the ownership of the state. The Japanese government expressed hope that the decision to make a Russian LLC the operator of the Sakhalin-2 project would not infringe on its rights.