Japan imports first Russian oil for 2.5 years in June

MOSCOW. July 17 (Interfax) - Japan has reflected oil imports from Russia in its statistics for the first time in 2.5 years.

A small cargo of 70,000 tonnes was delivered to the country in June, the Japanese Finance Ministry said in a report.

The oil cost 3.75 billion yen or $25 million.

Nikkei reported earlier, citing Kpler data, that Russian oil had been unloaded at the Taiyo refinery.

Japan bought 10.22 million tonnes of oil in total in June and the Russian oil made up less than 1% of that.

The key exporters to Japan were again the Middle Eastern countries, which supplied 9.58 million tonnes of oil last month. The last time Tokyo reflected oil imports from Russia in its foreign trade statistics was at the beginning of 2023 - 82,000 tonnes in January and 37,000 tonnes in February - after which the supplies came to an end.

Japan's imports started to trend down even earlier, against the backdrop of the coronavirus pandemic and geopolitics. Japan bought 9.38 million tonnes of oil from Russia in 2019, but just over 6 million tonnes in 2020, falling to 2.64 tonnes in 2021 and 2.29 million tonnes in 2022.