Tokyo, Oct. 13 (Jiji Press)–The Japanese government on Tuesday adopted three bills to strengthen and diversify the country’s energy supply chains amid disruptions caused by the war in the Middle East. One of the bills calls for providing subsidies to refineries to help cover cost increases stemming from efforts to procure crude oil through routes outside the Strait of Hormuz. The second bill requires the government to partly finance payments of cargo and ship insurance premiums for tankers if overseas insurance companies do not take on reinsurance. The third bill seeks to revise the law on the Japan Organization for Metals and Energy Security to allow it to provide investment and debt guarantees for pipeline construction in oil-producing countries in the Middle East. The government aims to enact the bills during the ongoing session of the Diet, the country’s parliament. END [Copyright The Jiji Press, Ltd.]
