(Adnkronos) – Tokyo, Aug. 26 (Adnkronos, Afp)
Tokyo – “Japan plans to provide support for the construction of alternative oil pipelines in the Middle East, in an attempt to improve energy security following the war with Iran,” according to Afp.
The French agency reported Wednesday from local media that “Before the conflict began in February, the world’s fourth-largest economy was heavily dependent on oil imports transiting through the Strait of Hormuz, now choked.”
The Nikkei newspaper reported that “Japan will support initiatives by Saudi Arabia and other countries to expand and build new crude oil routes that bypass the waterway.”
Japan has already tapped into its own oil reserves to cope with supply problems and increased crude oil imports from other countries, including the United States.
“Among other measures to be decided by a government at a meeting scheduled for Wednesday, there is an initiative for the creation of a special crude oil reserve for naphtha production,” according to NHK broadcaster.
Naphtha is a petroleum byproduct used in a wide range of industries.
The government is also expected to urge “the maximization of nuclear energy use,” NHK said, and provide support for next-generation perovskite solar cells.
Also to cope with the expected increase in energy demand due to artificial intelligence, Japan has already initiated a process of reviving the nuclear sector, 15 years after the Fukushima disaster.
