Saudi, Qatar ready to supply Japan with more oil

Saudi Arabia and Qatar are ready to supply Japan with more oil in the event of a shortage due to new sanctions imposed on Iran by the West. Japan is considering cutbacks in its Iranian oil purchases to secure a waiver from the new US sanctions on the Islamic Republic over its disputed nuclear programme.
Japan's foreign minister Koichiro Gemba was on a visit to Turkey and the Gulf countries since late last week. Analysts said Tokyo would be seeking assurances from the Gulf suppliers to compensate for the potential loss of Iranian oil. Japan did not make a concrete request to Qatar for additional crude, a Japanese foreign ministry official said on Monday but foreign minister Gemba on Sunday said Qatar would supply Japan "with the oil it needs".
"We didn't make a request to Qatar in concrete terms. We don't know whether we will need additional oil now," Masaru Sato, deputy spokesman for Japan's foreign ministry told a news briefing in Qatari capital Doha. "But we do have an informal agreement with Qatar to help meet Japan's needs, and help ensure price stability," he said.
Qatar is a small Opec producer with a capacity of around 800,000 barrels per day. Japan imports around 10 percent of its crude from Qatar, nine percent from Iran and 24-25 percent from the United Arab Emirates. Top oil exporter Saudi Arabia, where Gemba discussed security of oil supply and stability of oil prices during a visit to Riyadh on Saturday, supplies around 30 percent of Japan's crude.
Saudi Arabia and Japan pledged to boost co-operation in the energy sector with a proposal to provide more oil to Tokyo in case of a shortage or supply disruptions following fresh sanctions imposed on Iran by the West, Arab News reported. It did not cite a source. Saudi daily newspaper al-Watan reported that Japan has asked Saudi Arabia to provide more crude to replace any loss in shipments from Iran, citing a foreign ministry spokesman. "We are now trying to formulate a new energy policy, to be announced this summer. There is a consensus in Japan that there should be reduced reliance on nuclear energy," Masaru Sato, deputy spokesman for Japan's foreign ministry said.