TOKYO, November 6. /Corr. Kirill Agafonov/. The President of “Rosneft” Igor Sechin will perform on the opening Friday in the Japanese capital, international conference on energy cooperation between Russia and Japan. The main theme of the conference, according to organizers, will be the development of energy in the coastal areas of the Arctic ocean, and the use of the Northern sea route for transportation of cargoes, including liquefied natural gas (LNG).
In the conference, a panel discussion, and three sections devoted to the use of the Northern sea route, development of pipelines and LNG, and electricity. The event will be attended by the Deputy Minister of economy, trade and industry of Japan Takayuki Ueda, the senior managing Director of Japan Bank for international development (JBIC) Tadashi Maeda, Director-General, Mitsui & Co. Moscow Hiroshi Meguro, as well as senior representatives of a number of major Japanese corporations, including Tokyo Gas Co., Nippon Steel & Sumikin Engineering Co., Marubeni Corporation. The Russian side, in addition to Sechin, will present the head of Department of development of oil and gas sector of Russia and the world of energy research Institute of RAS Tatiana Mitrova and Deputy General Director of “RAO ES of the East” Alexey Kaplun.
Moscow and Tokyo – the world’s largest consumer of LNG have traditionally enjoyed close relations in the energy field. Russia is Japan’s one of the main suppliers of energy resources. According to the latest data, for example, in 2014 the Japanese purchases of coal in Russia for energy needs has increased to 9.66 as per MT. This is 20% more than in 2013. As a result, the share of Russia in total volume of Japanese imports of coal increased by almost 9%. According to various estimates, Russia accounts for approximately the same share in Japanese imports of LNG. In the Russian energy Ministry, also thought to be a promising area of cooperation with Japan is alternative energy and renewable energy.
By estimations of representatives of Japanese businesses, Russian LNG projects in the far East will have a competitive advantage even in the face of market saturation in the region. “In recent years, there are certain negative assessment of the prospects of market development in the nearest future”, – said the President of Kokubu Marubeni Fumiya East economic forum in Vladivostok in early September, adding that “a possible glut of the market could last until 2020”. According to him, most of LNG to the Asian market will be supplied from Australia and the USA. “However, even in such a difficult situation on the market of LNG projects in the far East will have a significant competitive advantage, due to very convenient geographical position and large reserves of gas,” – said Fumia. In addition, he stressed that Russia has established itself as a reliable supplier of energy resources, including in Japan.
The organizers of today’s event were the Japanese Sasakawa peace Foundation the Peace Foundation, which is implementing the project “Development of strategies for sustainable use of the Northern sea route”. Conference on energy cooperation between Japan and Russia, held in its framework.
