Japan Starts Additional Release of State Oil Reserves

Tokyo, May 1 (Jiji Press)–Japan started releasing on Friday additional state oil reserves equivalent to about 20 days of domestic consumption, amid crude oil procurement concerns brought on by the de facto blockade of the Strait of Hormuz. The reserves will be released from 10 stockpiling bases across the country. Together with the first round, which started in March, under which about 30 days’ worth of oil was released, the government aims to ensure a stable supply of oil. Despite the government announcing in late April that the start date of the second round of oil reserve releases would be pushed back by one day to Saturday, the start came on Friday, as initially scheduled. Pointing out that the mix-up was due to inadequate information sharing by the Agency for Natural Resources and Energy, a government spokesperson said, “We’ll try to work on better communication.” For the second round, the government will release a total of 5.8 million kiloliters of stockpiled oil, with four wholesalers purchasing the oil for about 540 billion yen. Japan will release oil reserves, including those held by the private sector, and utilize oil procured from the United States. Through such efforts, the Asian nation expects to have enough oil to last until after the start of next year. END [Copyright The Jiji Press, Ltd.]