Overview
- Energy officials opened the Shibushi reserve to tankers in a public handover, launching an extra sale of about 5.8 million kiloliters to four major refiners for roughly ¥540 billion.
- The new draw follows an initial release in March tied to Iran-related risks and covers close to 20 days of domestic oil use to steady supply to the market.
- A wave of ruling LDP visits to the Philippines, Nigeria, and India is focused on energy cooperation and broader resource ties to diversify fuel sources.
- In Kazakhstan, senior LDP figure Yasunori Nishimura is backing INPEX’s plan to prioritize sales of Kazakh crude to Japanese buyers, with a U.S. stop next to meet oil executives in Houston.
- Parliament-to-parliament outreach to China has cooled, and a planned friendship delegation to Beijing was dropped, leaving only business-focused meetings during a brief Beijing stop.