Shunichi Kito, chairman of the Petroleum Association of Japan (and chairman of Idemitsu Kosan), said at a regular press conference on the 18th that amid escalating tensions in the Middle East, Japanese oil refiners “have secured procurement through November.” He added that the outlook for December onward is “unknown” and did not rule out the possibility that additional releases from Japan’s strategic petroleum reserves could become necessary depending on how the situation develops.<\/p>\n
In the Middle East, Saudi Arabia’s East-West Pipeline\u2014which had been growing in importance as an alternative transport route to the Strait of Hormuz\u2014has come under attack, while navigation risks have also risen in the Bab el-Mandeb Strait on the Red Sea side, further intensifying threats to the crude supply network.<\/p>\n
Regarding the extent of damage to the pipeline, Kito said, “We do not yet know the extent of the damage or how long recovery will take,” indicating that the number of days required for restoration cannot be projected at this time. He added, “We hope for a swift restoration,” while expressing caution that the outlook for the Middle East situation remains uncertain.<\/p>\n
With the winter energy demand season approaching, Kito indicated that since refiners have secured supply through November, no reserve releases will be necessary for the time being. However, the key focus for December onward will be how far companies can progress in securing alternative supply arrangements.<\/p>\n
On the direction of crude procurement, Kito noted that “for Japan, Middle Eastern crude is the most suitable,” and stated that “the right direction is to focus on how to secure stable supply of Middle Eastern crude,” reaffirming his negative stance toward reducing dependence on the Middle East.<\/p>\n
Japan’s oil industry has maintained supply by combining procurement via Saudi Arabia’s East-West Pipeline with alternative imports from other regions amid the de facto blockade of the Strait of Hormuz. The attack on the pipeline\u2014damaging the alternative route itself\u2014has highlighted a new vulnerability for Japan’s energy security.<\/p>\n
The focus now shifts to the timeline for pipeline restoration and the extent to which alternative procurement from outside the Middle East can be expanded. If procurement cannot be secured for December onward, additional releases from the government’s strategic petroleum reserves could once again become a realistic option.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Shunichi Kito, chairman of the Petroleum Association of Japan (and chairman of Idemitsu Kosan), said at a regular…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":620110,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[158180,114,278963,7360,85,46,280394,78,280395,114994],"class_list":["post-620109","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-business","tag-bab-el-mandeb-strait","tag-business","tag-east-west-pipeline","tag-idemitsu-kosan","tag-il","tag-israel","tag-petroleum-association-of-japan","tag-saudi-arabia","tag-shunichi-kito","tag-strait-of-hormuz"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/620109","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=620109"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/620109\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/620110"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=620109"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=620109"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=620109"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}